Premier League champions Liverpool have agreed a £116m deal to sign Germany attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen.
The fee for the 22-year-old includes a guaranteed £100m and a further £16m in add-ons.
Those bonus payments would only become payable if the Reds achieve a sustained level of success – which would then make it a British record.
The British record for an initial fee remains Chelsea’s £107m signing of Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez from Benfica in 2023.
Chelsea also brought in Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo for an initial £100m fee, which could rise to £115m.
The move will, however, be a club record fee for Liverpool.
Uruguay striker Darwin Nunez was brought in 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 had been keen on Wirtz before cooling their interest because of the costs involved in the deal, while Bayern Munich were also linked with him.
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.
BBC Sport
