Liverpool appear to have made serious progress in their pursuit of Florian Wirtz over the past 24 hours.
A number of widely trusted reporters shared significant updates on the matter on Friday, with both Fabrizio Romano and Paul Joyce indicating that the Reds have made a formal approach to Bayer Leverkusen for the 22-year-old, and The Athletic‘s David Ornstein confirming that the two clubs are indeed in talks.
Bundesliga insider Christian Falk even claimed that the player has already begun househunting around Merseyside, with Bayern Munich apparently caught out as they hadn’t expected to commit to paying a fee which could come in at around €150m (£126m).
In the early hours of Saturday morning, Sky Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg took to X with a hugely promising update on Wirtz, with a move to Liverpool now expected to materialise ‘soon’.
The journalist posted:
Having already effectively confirmed a deal for the Netherlands right-back, Liverpool could be on the cusp of announcing him and Wirtz simultaneously in what’d represent an earth-shattering double coup for the Bayer Leverkusen duo.
Ornstein has indicated that the 22-year-old wants a move to Anfield, and that his proposed transfer would be a club-record acquisition for LFC and also make him the most expensive German footballer of all time, with the eventual fee likely to top the £100m mark.
The Reds have only signed two first-team players since the start of 2024, so for Richard Hughes to wrap up a double deal for Frimpong and Wirtz before this summer’s transfer window even opens would be phenomenal work on his part.
Previous near-misses have taught us not to jump the gun too early until such time that an official announcement comes from the club, but with several reliable sources indicating over the past 24 hours that Liverpool are getting closer to signing the Germany international, who can blame fans for getting excited?
The message from the Premier League champions has been clear in recent weeks – we have no intention of giving up our title any time soon, and if you want to wrestle it off us next season, you’re gonna need to put in quite the effort!
