Premier League champions Liverpool have completed the signing of German international Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen in a record-breaking transfer deal, the club announced.
The attacking midfielder joins the Reds on a five-year contract, with Leverkusen receiving a guaranteed £100 million and an additional £16 million in potential bonuses. The deal makes Wirtz Liverpool’s most expensive signing in history, surpassing the £75 million paid for Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk in 2017.
The 22-year-old also becomes the fifth player to cross the £100 million mark in Premier League transfer history, joining the likes of Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo, Arsenal’s Declan Rice, and Manchester City’s Jack Grealish.
“I feel very happy and very proud. Finally it’s done and I was waiting for a long time finally it’s done and I am really happy,” Wirtz said in a statement released by the club.
“I’m really excited to have a new adventure in front of me. This was also a big point of my thoughts: that I want to have something completely new, to go out of the Bundesliga and to join the Premier League.”
Wirtz was a key figure in Bayer Leverkusen’s remarkable 2023–2024 season, where the club won a domestic league and Cup double without a single defeat. He contributed 16 goals and 15 assists in 45 appearances last season and ended his Leverkusen career with 57 goals and 65 assists from 197 matches, having joined the club from Cologne in 2020.
The midfielder, capped 31 times by Germany since his debut in 2021, is the only player to have registered double digits in both goals and assists across the last two Bundesliga seasons.
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Wirtz was also reportedly on the radar of Bayern Munich and Manchester City, both of whom were seeking a replacement for Belgian playmaker Kevin De Bruyne. However, Liverpool secured his signature, reinforcing their ambition to continue their success under manager Arne Slot.
Slot, who recently became the first Dutch coach to win the Premier League and only the sixth to do so in their debut season, will now have Wirtz to complement a talented midfield that includes Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, and Ryan Gravenberch. Wirtz’s versatility also allows him to play as a left winger or false nine.
“I would like to win everything every year! First of all, we have to do our work, I have to make my work,” Wirtz said.
“In the end, we want to be successful. Last season they won the Premier League so my goal is for sure to win it again and also to go further in the Champions League. I’m really ambitious.”
Wirtz becomes Liverpool’s second signing of the summer transfer window, following the arrival of Dutch right-back Jeremie Frimpong, also from Bayer Leverkusen.
