Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool have signed an ‘exceptional talent’ in club record signing Florian Writz.
Wirtz, 22, was officially unveiled as a Liverpool player on Friday night having completed his £116million move from Bayer Leverkusen.
Including add-ons, that fee will make him the most expensive signing in Premier League history, dwarfing Liverpool’s previous record fee of £85m, spent on Darwin Nunez two years ago.
Despite the considerable outlay, Wirtz is regarded as one of the best young talents in European football, coveted by Manchester City and Real Madrid before deciding on a move to Merseyside.
Klopp, who stepped down as Liverpool boss at the end of the 2023-24 season having since taken up a new role at Red Bull GmbH, is convinced his old side have landed a winner.
While they lost Trent Alexander-Arnold to Real Madrid, the Reds moved quickly to bring in a replacement in Jeremie Frimpong.
Milos Kerkez meanwhile is expected to arrive from Bournemouth as Andy Robertson’s replacement at left-back.
‘It’s very difficult to strengthen them when you’re champions,’ Klopp continued.
‘But Liverpool have managed that. They’ve signed an exceptional talent in Florian Wirtz .
Writz was admired by City who at one point viewed him as a long-term successor for Kevin de Bruyne while Xabi Alonso was interested in bringing him along from Leverkusen to Real Madrid.
‘I just thought that it was the right point in my career to make the next step and of course I wanted to get to a club that is from the top three in the world, and in my opinion Liverpool was one of them,’ Wirtz said, explaining his decision to head to Anfield.
‘Yeah, I just saw myself in the best hands in Liverpool.
‘I was really convinced by the people here, by the idea, and everything what the club offers me was really good. And in the end [it was] also easy to be excited for me to come to Liverpool.’
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