Liverpool Agree £116M Florian Wirtz Deal with Bayer Leverkusen

Premier League champions Liverpool have agreed a £116 million deal to sign Germany attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen.

The fee for the 22-year-old includes a guaranteed £100 million and a further £16 million in add-ons.

Those bonus payments would only become payable if the Reds achieve a sustained level of success – which would then make it a British record.

The British record for an initial fee remains Chelsea’s £107 million signing of Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez from Benfica in 2023.

Chelsea also brought in Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo for an initial £100 million fee, which could rise to £115 million.

The move will, however, be a club record fee for Liverpool.

Uruguay striker Darwin Nunez was brought in from Benfica in a deal worth an initial £64 million and rising to a potential £85 million with add-ons, while they paid £75 million to sign centre-back Virgil van Dijk from Southampton in 2018.

Manchester City had been keen on Wirtz before cooling their interest because of the costs involved in the deal, while Bayern Munich were also linked with him.

Wirtz is believed to have made it clear that his preference was a move to Anfield, with Liverpool negotiating a deal which is below Leverkusen’s valuation of about £126 million.