Florian Wirtz's agent has revealed that he attempted to secure his client a move to Real Madrid last summer, before Liverpool signed him in a staggering £116million deal. Had circumstances been marginally different however, the 22-year-old might have been pulling on the colours of Real Madrid amid a reunion with his former Leverkusen head coach, then-manager Xabi Alonso, as his agent Volker Struth explained in a new interview. '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 Bild. 'Xabi replied: "You don’t have to tell me that, you have to tell Florentino Perez (Real Madrid's president)." But amid a bustling transfer window that saw them reel in Dean Huijsen, Franco Mastantuono, Alvaro Carreras and Trent Alexander-Arnold, Real Madrid ultimately decided to pass on another high-profile recruit.

Source: Daily Mail February 25, 2026 13:16 UTC