Bayer Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro claims that Florian Wirtz would have joined Real Madrid last summer if the Spanish club had made a concrete bid, as the midfielder ultimately chose to sign for Liverpool.
Speaking on Sport1’s Doppelpass, Carro explained that Leverkusen had prioritized extending Wirtz’s contract and were willing to push financial boundaries to keep him. “The Wirtz family and Florian knew that extending his contract was our top priority. We were very cautious with salaries during the summer transfers. But we would have been prepared to make an exception for Florian,” he said.
Carro added, “We were prepared to push the boundaries and give everything to extend his contract. And for a while, it looked like it might work out. In the end, Florian decided for himself what he wanted to do. The parents are his advisors, and I think it’s good that they fully respect Florian’s wishes.”
On the possibility of a move to Real Madrid, Carro stressed that Wirtz’s ambition to win the Champions League would have made Madrid an attractive option. “He’s someone who wants to win the Champions League. We thought that with this team we would have been capable of going further than we did. He saw that we had won the Bundesliga title, but winning the Champions League with Bayer Leverkusen might be more difficult,” he said.
Carro also highlighted Xabi Alonso’s role in the situation. “He would definitely have gone to Madrid if Xabi had made the offer. But Xabi has less say at Madrid than he does with us. One of Alonso’s greatest strengths was his ability to work with our scouting department to define who needed to be in our team. Florentino Pérez decides the transfers, not Xabi Alonso.”