Florian Wirtz moves from Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool FC

Florian Wirtz will no longer play in the Bundesliga for Bayer 04 Leverkusen, but will instead play in the English Premier League. After passing his medical, the international signed a contract with English champions Liverpool FC until 2030. The transfer fee for the 22-year-old professional, including bonuses, is said to be around 150 million euros.

This makes Wirtz the most expensive transfer in Bundesliga history. The previous record was the €135 million Borussia Dortmund paid from FC Barcelona for Ousmane Dembélé in the summer of 2018. The Frenchman has been playing for newly crowned Champions League winners Paris St. Germain since 2023.

Became champion with Bayer 04

Wirtz is reportedly earning between €20 and €22 million per year at Liverpool. He is considered – alongside Jamal Musiala of FC Bayern Munich – the biggest talent in German football. He trained in the youth system of Bundesliga club 1. FC Köln before signing a contract with Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 2020 at the age of 16. He made his first Bundesliga appearance there that same year at the age of 17.

Wirtz's contract with Leverkusen actually ran until mid-2027. He made 140 appearances for the Werkself, scoring 35 goals and providing 47 assists. Wirtz played a key role in Leverkusen becoming German champions for the first time in the club's history in 2024 and subsequently completing the double with a DFB Cup win.

Football in the living room with sister Juliane

The foundations for near-perfect ball control, even in tight spaces and against multiple opponents, were laid early on: At the age of four, Wirtz began playing for the "Bambinis" of his hometown club, Grün-Weiß Brauweiler, in a suburb of Cologne . His first coach there was his father, who is now his advisor. Hans-Joachim Wirtz quickly recognized his son's talents and nurtured them accordingly.

In the Wirtz household, it was virtually impossible not to play with a ball, as Florian Wirtz revealed in interviews with the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" and the football magazine "11 Freunde": "There were always footballs lying around at home, someone was always kicking them around. Especially me with my sister Juliane."

Juliane Wirtz, a year older than her brother Florian, is also a professional soccer player. She also previously played for Leverkusen and is now under contract with Werder Bremen in the Women's Bundesliga .

"We didn't have a TV for entertainment, so we played soccer in the living room," says Florian Wirtz. There were always "at least ten balls" lying around. "So when I went into the kitchen to get a plate, I had a ball at my feet."

Also strong defensively

Wirtz's successful offensive moves are mostly remembered. For example, when he repeatedly hooked the ball and danced around Freiburg's defenders in his "Goal of the Year" in 2023. Or how he scored a hat trick after being substituted late in the 2024 home game against Werder Bremen, when the Werkself were just one win away from their longed-for first league title, and thus triggered two premature pitch invasions by the fans.

Wirtz also made a statement for the national team , scoring the fastest goal in DFB international history after just eight seconds in the 2024 European Championship friendly against France . At the European Championship in Germany, he scored twice: the first goal of the tournament for the DFB team in the opening match against Scotland and the last in the quarterfinal defeat to eventual European champions Spain.

Despite all his attacking prowess, however, it's often forgotten how much Wirtz also contributes to his team's defensive play. He runs more than ten kilometers in every game, constantly shifting positions, closing down space, either charging the opponent head-on or sprinting to win back a lost ball deep in his own half.

Even better after cruciate ligament rupture than before

In 2022, a cruciate ligament tear sidelined Wirtz for months. He missed the World Cup in Qatar, and his Champions League debut was postponed. Wirtz returned in 2023. After the enforced break, Leverkusen's championship-winning coach Xabi Alonso —who has since moved to Real Madrid —initially introduced Wirtz back to the team.

By the exceptional 2023/2024 season, Wirtz had reached an even higher level than before the enforced break. He has now played nine Champions League matches, scoring six goals. Wirtz will once again play in Europe's premier club competition with English champions Liverpool.

In Leverkusen, Wirtz wore the number 10, which has a special meaning in football because great players such as Pelé , Diego Maradona and Lothar Matthäus have worn it.

"Flo is a very special player," says Xabi Alonso in the Amazon documentary "Bayer Leverkusen - A Dream Comes True," which traces the Werkself's path to winning the double. "The number 10 shirt is tailor-made for him. He's one of those exceptional players who honors that number. There aren't many of them, but Flo is certainly one of them."

For Wirtz himself, the jersey number has a personal meaning beyond football, as he is the tenth child in his family. "I have nine siblings, and I'm the tenth, so it's a number that suits me very well."