It is now ‘only a matter of time’ before Liverpool complete a deal for Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz and make him the most expensive signing in Premier league history.
That’s according to SportBILD, who report that the transfer could be finalised by Liverpool in just a few days. Wirtz has already agreed on a contract with the Premier League champions.
Now it’s just a matter of the transfer fee. Liverpool and Leverkusen have been holding preliminary talks for week, and the Reds have made a first official offer. This offer is seen as a demonstration that they do not want weeks of talks.
According to Sport BILD, the offer is a £100m fixed fee plus £10-12m in performance related bonuses. This equates to €130.5-133m.
Negotiations are now underway with that offer as a foundation to work from. The two clubs want to agree quickly and reach a deal for the midfielder. Leverkusen are continuing to demand any deal be equivalent to €150m. Liverpool would like to pay around €135m.
An important point is who pays the ‘training compensation’. Five percent of the deal is to be distributed among clubs Wirtz played for from 12 to 23. He joined Leverkusen from Koln in January 2020. They’re set to earn around €3m.
The two clubs also need to work on the bonus clauses, which will be split between easier to achieve such as qualifying for the Champions League and harder to achieve, such as winning it.
There is no indication that this will be hard to work out as Liverpool and Leverkusen are not far apart in their overall package thanks to the Reds starting the bidding so strongly.
