Liverpool may have ex-teammate of Florian Wirtz to thank for securing blockbuster transfer
Florian Wirtz became Liverpool’s first £100m+ signing last summer, and a former teammate of his may have played a part in that then club-record transfer coming to fruition.
Bayern Munich had also been keen to sign the 22-year-old in 2025 and were even prepared to offer him significantly higher wages than what he’s earning at Anfield, but the Germany international was ultimately swayed by the sporting project in L4.
The Bavarian giants have cherrypicked numerous elite talents from fellow Bundesliga sides over the years (Michael Ballack, Philipp Lahm, Manuel Neuer, Mario Gotze, Robert Lewandowski, etc), but had to concede defeat when the Premier League champions came calling.
Andrich begged Wirtz not to join Bayern last summer
An ex-teammate of Wirtz at Bayer Leverkusen has now revealed how he begged Liverpool’s number 7 to snub Vincent Kompany’s side in favour of a move abroad, which the playmaker ultimately did.
Speaking on the Spielmacher podcast by 360Media (via Bild), Robert Andrich recalled: “I said to him, ‘Please don’t do it! Don’t do this to us.’
“I wanted it (the move abroad) and I told the Bayern boys that too. I’m happy for him that he took the step. I wouldn’t have thought that he would dare to take the step abroad so soon.”
Liverpool can be very glad that Wirtz heeded Andrich’s pleas
Andrich was actually a Bayern fan growing up, but the professional fear of losing Wirtz to Leverkusen’s biggest domestic rival took hold when it came to the latter’s transfer decision last summer.
Only our number 7 could honestly answer how much of a bearing the pleas of his ex-teammate had in his choice to join Liverpool, but if it played even just a small part, everyone associated with the Reds will be grateful for the 31-year-old’s intervention.
After taking 23 matches to score his first goal for Slot’s side, the playmaker has now struck thrice in his last five appearances, and David Lynch outlined how Anfield chiefs never lost faith in the German despite some stinging criticism from outside the club.
Wirtz could’ve taken the easy option of going to Bayern and winning the Bundesliga on a near-annual basis (ironically, his Leverkusen side in 2023/24 proved a rare exception), but instead he took on the challenge of testing himself at the reigning champions of the highest-profile domestic league in world football.
The goals are beginning to flow for the 22-year-old as he makes up for the surprisingly long wait to get off the mark, and if Liverpool are to lift silverware this season, it seems almost certain that he’ll have played a central role in that.
In the meantime, we’d like to thank Andrich for his words of wisdom to his former teammate!
You can watch Slot’s full post-Barnsley press conference below, via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:
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