EXCLUSIVE: Liverpool quoted record fee for Florian Wirtz

Jacque Talbot

• Updated: 29 Mar 2023 13:54 BST
• 3 min read

Exclusive

Florian Wirtz won’t depart Bayer Leverkusen unless a club comes in with an offer over €170 million (£150m), FootballTransfers has learnt.

Liverpool have been linked to the Germany international and the Reds did look at the attacker in 2021 but were put off by the then-€56m asking price.

As previously reported, the Reds are in the market for a No.10 and there is still a strong belief that it could be Mason Mount, who looks set to leave Chelsea in the summer transfer window.

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Sources in Germany have informed us that Bayer will look to sell Wirtz only after Euro 2024 and that they will demand a fee that would represent a Bundesliga record.

Wirtz rose through the ranks at Koln. There had been an understanding between Die Geisbocke and Bayer that they would never pinch each others’ youth players, but Wirtz broke that when he moved to the Bayer Arena in January 2020. At 16 years old, he was already playing sporadically in the first-team - impressing so much that Peter Bosz, then Bayer manager, soon made him one of the side’s regular starters.

He is considered the next big thing in German football and Bayer would command a fee which is representative of that. It fundamentally leaves Liverpool out of the race unless their owners, FSG, are able to bring in a minority investment to bolster their funds.

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Liverpool's position on Gomez and the sporting director role

Elsewhere, there have been suggestions that David Fallows may take up the sporting director role. As we reported before, Jurgen Klopp has reservations about taking Paul Mitchell on, with the Englishman currently helping Monaco find a replacement for his role and set to leave the Ligue 1 club at the end of the summer window. Manchester United is considered an option.

Indeed, we hear that Fallows could lead a new-look recruitment team, with the club hoping to look internally to fulfil the sporting director position. It’s not clear at this stage whether the Reds will abandon the role entirely and hand the keys to Fallows, with a replacement still needed for Julian Ward, who will go to Ajax.

Meanwhile, Joe Gomez is unlikely to leave Liverpool in the summer. It would take a substantial fee to prise and defender, who has just signed fresh terms with the Reds last year until 2027, away. Unless an ambitious offer comes in, Liverpool won’t sell.

Newcastle have been linked, and though they are looking for someone of a similar ilk, they will not be willing to fork out that much for a position that is not considered a priority.