Club set to demand €170M for star midfielder as Man City and Liverpool circle

Manchester City and Liverpool will have to fork out an eye-watering €170 million if they are to sign Florian Wirtz this summer, a report has revealed.

The Premier League champions are claimed to have reignited their interest in the German attacking midfielder, as Etihad Stadium officials look to recruit in the centre of the park amid uncertainty surrounding current options.

Bernardo Silva continues to cause confusion at Manchester City, having been interested in an exit from the club for a number of seasons, while Ilkay Gundogan is fast approaching the expiration date of his current Etihad contract.

Kalvin Phillips has also so far failed to impress after signing from Leeds United in a £42 million deal last summer, while Kevin De Bruyne is certainly not getting any younger, so the urgency around refreshing the squad is hardly unsurprising.

Florian Wirtz has impressed onlookers for his performances in German football for a number of seasons now, and was unfortunate to miss out on his country’s World Cup campaign in Qatar due to injury.

However, interest in the 19 year-old has not faded by any means, and a new report has stated that Bayer Leverkusen will demand a staggering level of finance to prise him away from their club during the coming months.

That is according to the information of Jacque Talbot, reporting for FootballTransfers, who claims that Wirtz will not be departing Leverkusen this summer unless a club comes in with an offer of over €170 million/£150 million.

Sources in Germany are also quoted within the report, as it is stated that Bayer will only look to sell Florian Wirtz only after the 2024 European Championships, and that they will then demand a fee that would represent a Bundesliga record.

The Bundesliga is expected to be at the centre of a number of high-profile transfer dealings across the course of the coming months, with Jude Bellingham’s mooted exit from Borussia Dortmund dominating headlines in recent weeks.

The England international is expected to command interest from across Europe, with Manchester City and Real Madrid understood to be leading the chase, while Liverpool can certainly not be discounted at this stage.

With Dortmund not keen on selling one of their star men this summer, the expectation from the Signal Iduna Park is that it would take a fee north of £120 million to secure the services of the 19 year-old central midfielder.