Bayern Munich have been left gutted after Florian Wirtz’ rejected their advances in favour of a move to the Premier League with Liverpool.
That’s according to German football expert Raphael Honigstein, who has tipped the 22-year-old to become English football’s ‘next superstar’, ahead of his £116.5million transfer from Bayer Leverkusen.
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Wirtz has agreed a deal to sign for the Premier League champions in a package that could eventually become a British record deal, joining for an initial fee of £100m that could rise to £116.5m.
This would eclipse the previous British transfer record of £115m that Chelsea paid Brighton for Moises Caicedo in August 2023.
The Germany international has established himself as one of football’s most exciting young talents with Leverkusen, playing a starring role as they lifted the Bundesliga in 2024.
He received the league’s 2023/24 Player of the Year award, and has notched 34 goals and 33 assists over the past two seasons.
Read more on Florian Wirtz
Unsurprisingly, this led to Wirtz being pursued by a number of top clubs, with Liverpool fighting off competition to secure his signature.
While Manchester City and Real Madrid were both interested in the attacking midfielder, he was widely expected to join Bundesliga champions Bayern, who made no secret of their admiration of him.
The Bavarians have made a habit of poaching the country’s top talents from rival clubs, and journalist Honigstein admitted it represented a huge blow to German football to see Wirtz leave for England.
He told the Trans Europe Express show: “For the Bundesliga, of course, it’s a shame to not see him for a little bit longer.
“I think he’s going to be the next superstar like De Bruyne, like Haaland, that people would have liked to see a bit longer.
“Bayern feel, of course, that they have missed out.
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“They’ve been very, very vocal, as they often are, about trying to get him in and when they do that, then of course, they are exposed and they’ve been the target of a lot of shunning for that, as you can expect, in Germany because they missed out on him.”
Despite disappointment over losing one of their standout players, Honigstein revealed a number of German football fans will be excited to follow Wirtz’ next chapter at a huge Premier League club.
He tipped the playmaker’s arrival in England to have a similar impact to Jurgen Klopp‘s exploits as Liverpool manager.
The legendary German manager guided the Reds to Premier League and Champions League glory in a stellar nine years at Anfield between 2015 and 2024.
Honigstein continued: “At the same time, I think German football will be happy.
“It’s not the Bundesliga, but it is Florian Wirtz playing, just like Klopp was coaching, at such a massive club in the Premier League.
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“I think the attention will be huge for him, and more people than ever before will watch Liverpool with him, trying to figure out where his journey is heading, what his role will be.”
He explained: “Liverpool already had a pretty big following before Klopp, it’s only grown during his time there.
“And Wirtz, I think, is going to take them even further when it comes to being the centre of attention, and indeed one of the favourite clubs of people who perhaps are looking for a big favourite club and don’t have one in Germany.
“So I think Wirtz is just going to go bigger and bigger.
“He’s not going to be on the screen as much as he would have been with Bayern, but a lot of people will tune in mostly on Sundays, I suspect, when he plays with Liverpool at 4:30.”
