LIVERPOOL have reached a £116 million agreement deal to sign Germany midfielder Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen, according to reports.
Bayer Leverkusen are the current club of Super Eagles of Nigeria stars Victor Boniface and Nathan Tella.
The fee for the 22-year-old includes a guaranteed £100m and a further £16m in add-ons.
The £116m in total will be a British record, surpassing the £115m Chelsea paid for Moises Caicedo from Brighton in 2023.
Those bonus payments would only become payable if the English Premier League champions achieve a certain level of success.
The British record for an initial fee remains Chelsea’s £107m signing of Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez from Benfica in 2023.
Caicedo cost an initial £100m fee, which could rise to £115m with add-ons.
Liverpool have splashed the cash in recent seasons, acquiring Uruguay striker Darwin Nunez from Benfica in a deal worth an initial £64m and rising to a potential £85m with add-ons, while they paid £75m to sign centre-back Virgil van Dijk from Southampton in 2018.
Manchester City were reportedly keen on Wirtz but pulled out of the race due to the high costs involved in the deal, while Bayern Munich were also linked with the attacking midfielder.
Wirtz is believed to have made it clear that his preference was a move to Anfield, with Liverpool negotiating a deal which is below Leverkusen’s valuation of about £126m.
Wirtz made his debut for Leverkusen at the age of 17, scoring 57 goals in 197 games for the club, and helped them win the Bundesliga for the first time in 2024.
He has scored seven goals in 31 appearances for Germany since making his international debut in 2021.
Wirtz is set to become the second player Liverpool have bought from Bayer Leverkusen this summer, with right full-back Jeremie Frimpong having arrived in a £34m deal.
The Reds have also made a move for Bournemouth left-back Milos Kerkez, with talks taking place about a deal of between £45m-£50m.