It appears borderline unfathomable Borussia Dortmund can be content material with a famous person becoming a member of bitter rivals Bayern Munich.
However Liverpool-bound attacker Florian Wirtz supposedly transcends rivalry, regardless of not taking part in for both membership.
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In an interview with German publication Kicker, Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke claimed he would have most well-liked to see Wirtz stay within the Bundesliga, even when it meant a change to the nation’s largest workforce.
“It is an actual disgrace {that a} participant like Florian Wirtz is leaving the Bundesliga,” Watzke stated.
“I would not have had an issue at in any respect if he had gone to FC Bayern.
“That may have been higher for the Bundesliga.”
As a substitute, Wirtz is certain for Anfield with Liverpool and Leverkusen putting an settlement for the German.
The Reds will fork out an eye-watering £116.5million for Wirtz, a charge which is able to break the British switch report.
It’s going to eclipse the £115m Chelsea despatched to Brighton for Moises Caicedo in August 2023.
Naturally, it additionally shatters the membership report £85m Liverpool paid Benfica for Darwin Nunez in 2022.
The approaching seize of Wirtz represents a serious coup for Liverpool given Bayern and Manchester Metropolis vied for his signature earlier within the window.
Metropolis have been the primary to drop out of the race after they realized how a lot it might price.
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However Bayern’s withdrawal from the Wirtz sweepstakes got here as considerably of a shock given their monitor report of poaching prime expertise from their rivals.
Over time, Bayern have snapped up Mario Gotze and Robert Lewandowski from Borussia Dortmund, Leon Goretzka from Schalke and Joshua Kimmich from RB Leipzig to call 4.
However not even the pull of representing essentially the most profitable membership in Germany was sufficient to persuade Wirtz to affix Bayern.
The lack of one in every of German soccer’s brightest attacking skills on the age of twenty-two comes as a blow to not simply Leverkusen, however the Bundesliga as a complete.
Nevertheless, the very fact Wirtz turned down Bayern after their distinguished makes an attempt to woo him has left the membership ‘uncovered’, in line with German soccer skilled Raphael Honigstein.
“They have been very, very vocal, as they typically are, about attempting to get him in and once they try this, then after all, they’re uncovered they usually’ve been the goal of numerous shunning that, as you possibly can count on, in Germany as a result of they missed out on him,” Honigstein advised talkSPORT’s Trans Euro Categorical.
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However Honigstein believes there’ll nonetheless be loads of German followers who tune in to Liverpool’s matches to see how the 22-year-old will get on.
“Liverpool already had a fairly large following earlier than [Jurgen] Klopp, it is solely grown throughout his time there,” Honigstein stated.
“And Wirtz, I feel, goes to take them even additional on the subject of being the centre of consideration, and certainly one of many favorite golf equipment of people that maybe are on the lookout for an enormous favorite membership and haven’t got one in Germany.
“So I feel Wirtz is simply going to go greater and greater.
“He is not going to be on the display as a lot as he would have been with Bayern, however lots of people will tune in totally on Sundays, I believe, when he performs with Liverpool at 4:30.”