Arsenal and Man City face 'never before seen' situation in Wirtz battle

Tom Weber

Updated: 28 Feb 2025 17:01 GMT
4 min read

Florian Wirtz, Bayer Leverkusen — © IMAGO

Bayern Munich would be willing to go into debt to secure the signing of Florian Wirtz, according to honorary president Uli Hoeness.

Article continues under the video

The Bayer Leverkusen wonderkid continues to enchant Europe's elite as his anticipated contract extension with the reigning Bundesliga champions is still pending.

Wirtz is being ogled with prying eyes by the biggest clubs in world football and many expected him to take the next step in his career in 2025. However, news of his positive contract talks with Leverkusen cast doubt on this.

Nevertheless, Wirtz continues to be the subject of rampant transfer speculation, with Arsenal, Man City and, chief among them, Bayern Munich perpetually linked with him.

Leverkusen feel secure in the knowledge that his current contract still runs until 2027, so they are under no pressure to sell him in the summer - unless someone stumps up a truly remarkable fee in the region of €150+ million.

Bayern willing to take drastic measures

Bayern Munich view Wirtz as their top target, although they know that trying to prise him away from their rivals could be an exercise in futility. The relationship between the two clubs is tense, to put it mildly.

In a bid to get buy-in from the player, the Munich outfit have launched a charm offensive. The club have been in regular contact with his father and agent Hans-Joachim Wirtz and pretty much every Bayern bigwig has publically gone on record to lavish praise on the youngster.

Honorary president Uli Hoeness previously described Wirtz as a 'dream signing' and he has now suggested that Bayern would be willing to pull out all the stops to get their hands on the wonderkid.

"If we wanted to sign the player, then we would have to think about financing," Hoeness told the Abendzeitung. "Our fixed-term deposit account is not as abundant as it used to be."

Hoeness indicates that Bayern could go into debt to secure the arrival of Wirtz, which is something that would be completely unheard of for Bayern and speaks to the growing tension within the club.

Recruitment directors Christoph Freund and Max Eberl are under pressure to offset their lavish recent spending with sales of and wage cuts for big-name players who are no longer justifying their expenses.

Breaking the bank on Wirtz would only increase the pressure, although Hoeness acknowledged that Bayern spending €100m on Harry Kane showed that they are able and willing "to push the limits."

By the same token, the club chief warned against the pitfalls of reckless spending. "FC Barcelona send their regards. We have to be careful. We're also pretty high up in Europe with our salary spending now purely so that we can remain competitive internationally."