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Florian Wirtz is expected to officially become a Liverpool player on Friday after completing a medical to seal the £116m switch from Bayer Leverkusen.

The Germany international is bound for Merseyside ahead of undergoing the routine examinations and all being well, the Reds will rubber stamp his club-record arrival ahead of the weekend.

Liverpool had initially held conversations with Leverkusen about Wirtz during their discussions around Jeremie Frimpong, whose £29m release was triggered last month before his formal transfer went through on June 1.



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However, those tentative talks over Wirtz's situation were ramped up significantly when the 22-year-old made clear his preference to move to the Premier League champions on May 23, which eliminated Bayern Munich from the race, having seen Manchester City drop out earlier in the month.

Sporting director Richard Hughes led on the negotiations with his Bayer counterpart Simon Rolfes, who was in regular dialogue with managing director Fernando Carro throughout the process.

An initial fee of £109m was turned down last month before a further offer of £114m brought two clubs nearer to an accord that was finally struck last week when an agreement was made on a £116m transfer.

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Liverpool will pay an initial £100m for Wirtz with a further £16m worth of add-ons based on Anfield achievements and it's been reported the attacking midfielder will join on a five-year deal worth around £200,000 a week.

Those figures, while slightly above what the Reds would traditionally pay a new arrival for the first team, appear more accurate than recent reports in Germany that claimed the attacker would be earning a base sum much closer to top earner Mohamed Salah, who penned the most lucrative deal of all time on Merseyside in April.

There had been some suggestions Wirtz might sign a six-year deal to allow Liverpool to spread the cost of the eye-watering, club-record fee across an extra term.

Alisson Becker, for example, penned a six-year contract when he joined from Roma for £65m, while Darwin Nunez did likewise after his initial £64m switch from Benfica three years ago.

However, it's expected former Koln youngster Wirtz will sign on until 2030 and the attacker is being viewed as as someone with a similar standing as £75m Virgil van Dijk and Alisson, two players who accelerated the charge for major honours following their additions in 2018

Wirtz, who has been on holiday with former Leverkusen team-mate and future Reds colleague Jeremie Frimpong this week, is expected to resume his time off before reporting for duty at the AXA Training Centre on July 7 for pre-season training.

Both players' unofficial debuts may come when the Reds begin their pre-season schedule at Preston North End on July 13.

The blockbuster transfer is not being viewed internally as a departure from the club's strict self-sustaining policy, imposed by owners Fenway Sports Group, but rather a transfer that has been facilitated thanks to the discipline shown since the summer transfer window of 2023.

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Liverpool spent just £12m last summer to add Federico Chiesa to their ranks last year, which made them the lowest spenders across the Premier League for the 24/25 campaign and the deal for Wirtz only moves them up to eighth for money paid out since the turn of the decade in the top flight.


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