Barcelona and Liverpool are reportedly among the front-runners in the race to sign Bayer Leverkusen wonderkid Florian Wirtz next summer.
The race to sign Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz is heating up, with Barcelona, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, and Liverpool eyeing the midfielder, according to Spanish outlet Fichajes.
The 20-year-old has started the 2023/24 season in positive form, scoring three goals and providing four assists in 10 matches. In total, the versatile attacker has scored 26 times and contributed 34 assists in 113 appearances across all competitions for Leverkusen, displaying composure and maturity well above his years.
Even though the German international extended his contract with Bayer Leverkusen this summer through 2027, prominent teams are still interested in signing him. Barcelona, for one, have had their eyes set on the 20-year-old prodigy for quite some time, monitoring his meteoric rise with great interest due to his versatility to create scoring opportunities from central attacking zones.
With the player understood to be keen to wear the Barcelona shirt at some stage in his career, this may hand an advantage to Barcelona in the race for his signature, although they are currently unable to meet Bayer Leverkusen’s valuation due to the club’s ongoing financial issues.
As alluded to above, the Blaugrana are not the only big European club showing an interest, with Liverpool keen to bring the Germany international to Anfield. The Reds resisted interest from the Saudi Pro League in Salah this summer.
But they are bracing themselves for further attempts to lure the Egypt international to the Middle East in 2024. Recent reports have suggested Salah will almost certainly be leaving Liverpool next year, though thankfully for Klopp, that would be in the summer and not in January.
With Salah’s future in Merseyside up in the air, the thought of Wirtz in a Liverpool shirt is mouthwatering, considering his reputation as arguably one of the standout midfielders of his generation.
Predominantly an attacking midfielder who can move wide at times, Wirtz is already a regular for Germany and is someone who could add much-needed guile to Liverpool’s attack to compensate for the eventual departure of Salah.
Wirtz has a long-term contract at Bayer Leverkusen that does not run out until 2027, meaning that he will cost a lot of money. Die Werkself have not placed a release clause in his contract and are therefore likely to demand a high figure.
