Florian Wirtz’s agent has revealed that he tried to engineer a “dream” move to Real Madrid last summer before Liverpool eventually signed the Germany international in a £116m deal.
Agent Volker Struth claims that he called then-Real Madrid manager Xabi Alonso and encouraged him to take Wirtz to the Bernabeu, with both Wirtz and Alonso having worked together at Bayer Leverkusen.
And while Alonso would have been aware of the German international’s talents – with Wirtz a key player in Leverkusen’s first ever Bundesliga title win in 2023/24 – the Spaniard reportedly referred Struth to Real Madrid club president Florentino Perez.
“During the period when a move to Liverpool or Bayern was being discussed, I called Xabi Alonso and told him: ‘You have to take the lad from Leverkusen with you to Real,’” Struth told German outlet Bild.
“Xabi replied: ‘You don’t have to tell me that, you have to tell Florentino Perez (Real Madrid’s president).’
“So I actually sent him a message: ‘Dear Florentino, I’ve told you many times before: I have a player here whom I would highly recommend. Florian Wirtz makes every team in the world better.’”
Perez supposedly thanked Struth but referred him to the club’s general manager José Sanchez, and a deal never materialised during a summer in which Los Blancos signed Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dean Huijsen, Alvaro Carreras and Franco Mastantuono.
“That year, it simply wasn’t the right time due to the squad and the budget,” Struth explained.
“Even Real Madrid’s coffers aren’t always overflowing. But my wish remains that Florian will play there one day,” he added.
Wirtz ended up moving to Liverpool in a record deal last summer, and while he has enjoyed a mixed start to life at Anfield as the champions’ Premier League campaign has stuttered, he is beginning to find his footing having produced a string of positive performances before being withdrawn from the starting line-up for last week’s win over Nottingham Forest.
The 22-year-old will be hoping to make a return this weekend for Saturday’s match against West Ham, with the Reds looking to move into the top five ahead of Chelsea playing Arsenal on Sunday.