FLORIAN WIRTZ probably always had it in his head that one day he might become a Liverpool player.
The man who planted that seed was Michael Edwards over five years ago.
Wirtz is joining the Reds for a record £116m after snubbing Bayern Munich[/caption]
Liverpool have been in constant contact with Wirtz’s father, Hans-Joachim, and mum, Karin Gross[/caption]
The connection established then, not only with Wirtz when he was still a youth player at FC Cologne but with his family, is a major reason why the mighty Bayern Munich have been left humiliated.
And why Manchester City were never really part of the equation nor even Real Madrid, despite the lure for Wirtz of again working under Xabi Alonso.
The ex-Liverpool midfielder was the manager at Bayer Leverkusen who realised he had a genius on his hands and helped him become a “creative force of nature”, as described on the Bundesliga website itself.
It most certainly did not go unnoticed at Bayern. And what Bayern want, they almost always get when it comes to collecting players from their rivals.
Fingers are snapped, fees agreed, contracts are signed and more Bundesliga talent dutifully marches into the Allianz Arena.
That’s the Bayern way. “Es ist erledigt,” they would say. Yes, ‘done and dusted’ is a phrase in Germany too, you know.
So when they sent their top brass along with manager Vincent Kompany for a cosy chat and a wage offer understood to be substantially more than Liverpool were talking – Wirtz, his agent dad Hans-Joachim and mum Karin where simply expected to ask on which dotted line to sign.
Not only that, Bayern sporting director Simon Rolfes and managing director Fernado Carro had an ace up their sleeve.
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Florian wouldn’t be the only Wirtz to be joining. Just to make him feel right at home older sister Juliane would be there, too.
She’s rated as a decent midfielder for Werder Bremen but, unlike her little brother who has 29 caps, has never played for the senior German women’s team.
No matter. Bayern would make it happen.
Then the whole Wirtz family – the footballing pair have eight siblings – would be able to settle down nicely in Bavarian splendour and forget about those upstart Englanders.
Except that neither are now signing. And Florian, a year younger than Juliane, is preparing for life in the Premier League as part of this summer’s spectacular re-booting of the new champions being put together by Edwards and sporting director Richard Hughes.
Yet the coup of signing Wirtz, with the Reds agreeing a stunning Premier League record £116m deal on Friday, is anything but a smash and grab raid on Bayern, no matter how arrogant and complacent they may have been in going for him.
Back in 2020, Edwards travelled to meet Hans-Joachim, Frau Karin and the young Wirtz, who started out with his father’s junior team SV Grun-Weiss Brauweiler.
I think my parents would get mad if I was too fixated on money. After I moved to Leverkusen at the age of 16, my parents managed my salary and transferred me 150 euros a month.
Florian Wirtz
Edwards is understood to have been first alerted to Wirtz’s potential by Jurgen Klopp, and bonds were created.
Even before Wirtz began making a name for himself after joining Leverkusen, Edwards was still there, a growing presence in the background and welcomed by the family.
Florian became the youngest–ever to feature for Leverkusen in the Bundesliga in May 2020, aged 17 years and 15 days.
Nineteen days after playing against Werder Bremen he became the German top flight’s youngest scorer – ironically, now, against Bayern.
He continued to make a growing impression, as did Edwards on him and the rest of the Wirtz clan, always staying touch.
Edwards left Liverpool in 2022, only to return in a far more powerful role in March of last year, just in time to decide that Arne Slot – and not the more vaunted Ruben Amorim – should be the man to replace Klopp.
But Edwards was always a friend to the Wirtz family and so while money is most definitely talking in terms of that giant transfer fee, it was Edwards’ words and loyalty that counted when he made his move months ago.
Not that the brilliant young attacker, with more completed dribbles last season (83) than anyone in the Bundesliga, and nine more than the man who he would have been a Bayern rival to in Jamal Musiala, sees cash as a motivating factor.
Indeed, Wirtz revealed: “Of course, you should make sure that you get a good contract but the sporting perspective is much more important for me than the money.
“I think my parents would get mad if I was too fixated on money.
“After I moved to Leverkusen at the age of 16, my parents managed my salary and transferred me 150 euros a month.
“That shaped me. It was important to my parents that I didn’t do anything nonsensical with my salary.”
His salary will be less nonsensical than the one he was offered by Bayern even if it is likely to be in the region of £300,000 a week.
But that relationship with Edwards, and a productive meeting with Slot, convinced him it would be common sense to move to Merseyside and join his Leverkusen team-mate Jeremie Frimpong, the Reds’ first signing of the summer.
Edwards’ sense of a great talent is unmatched, having also brought to Liverpool Mo Salah, Sadio Mane, Virgil van Dijk and Fabinho among many.
He didn’t sign the great Liverpool playmaker in Philippe Coutinho but he did negotiate the whopping £135m that Barcelona paid for him in 2018.
Wirtz may one day go down as the best of them all even if his talent makes signing him a no-brainer with that huge price reflecting his prodigy abilities.
But it took talent to spot him in the first place. Bayern, in their own backyard, didn’t.
They now have bratwurst all over their faces. Five years down the line Edwards has his man.
