Liverpool have lodged a bid of €100 million (£84 million, $113.7 million) to sign Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Florian Wirtz, it has emerged.
It was revealed last week that Wirtz had snubbed interest from Bayern Munich in favour of a move to Liverpool after being won over by Reds manager Arne Slot, but Leverkusen are not prepared to make life easy for any of Wirtz’s suitors.
The Bundesliga side, now led by former Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag, are thought to be demanding a fee of €150 million (£126.1 million, $170.8 million), but Fabrizio Romano has revealed Liverpool’s opening bid falls short of that figure.
Negotiations between the two clubs will continue, with both sides keen to thrash out a fast agreement and avoid a lengthy, drawn-out saga.
It was recently suggested Liverpool could try and send players to Leverkusen as part of a bid to drive down the overall cost. Just which players are available is unclear but the Reds are expected to explore a number of options.
Leverkusen’s firm stance on their price tag has already proven too much for Manchester City, who withdrew from the race to sign Wirtz earlier this month in favour of cheaper targets like Morgan Gibbs-White of Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Liverpool will hope that Wirtz’s clear desire to move to Anfield will work in their favour. Slot has spoken with the Germany international about his plans on both a personal and tactical level and has convinced Wirtz that he should try to head to Merseyside this summer.
If an agreement can be reached, Wirtz would be the second Leverkusen player to join Liverpool this summer, with right-back Jeremie Frimpong the chosen replacement for Real Madrid-bound Trent Alexander-Arnold.
READ THE LATEST LIVERPOOL NEWS, TRANSFER RUMORS AND MORE
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Liverpool ‘Submit Opening Bid’ for Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz.
