Football journalist Matt Ford looks at Florian Wirtz’s journey from injury struggles to Liverpool's record signing.
Florian Wirtz is used to breaking records.
When he made his debut for Bayer Leverkusen just 15 days after his 17th birthday, he became the club's youngest ever player – and the third youngest player in Bundesliga history at the time.
He would soon become the league's youngest ever goal-scorer, the youngest player to reach 50 Bundesliga appearances, the youngest German player to score in the UEFA Europa League, Germany's youngest ever goalscorer at a UEFA European Championship and the scorer of Germany's fastest-ever goal (7.92 seconds vs. France in March 2024).
"Breaking records is always something special," Wirtz told Bayer Leverkusen's official YouTube channel.
"As an athlete, you live for these moments."
Now, he's broken another one, becoming Liverpool's most expensive ever signing at £100 million, and potentially a record Premier League signing should performance-related add-ons take the total fee to £116.5 million.
Not bad for a 22-year-old who grew up as the youngest of 10 siblings in the Cologne suburb of Pulheim.
"We used to play and wrestle together in the narrow living room," Wirtz told 11Freunde magazine in February 2022, appearing on the front cover with his sister, Juliane, just 18 months older than him and a professional footballer herself.
"So, we learnt how to handle tough tackles at an early age!"
Serious knee injury
Just one month later, however, came a challenge which didn't end so well.
In a local derby against neighbours FC Cologne, Wirtz cut inside before being checked on the edge of the box.
He collapsed to the ground, holding his head, then his knee and then punching the turf and beckoning to the bench.
The scan confirmed his worst fears: cruciate ligament tear.
"The most difficult part was the diagnosis," he said. "But the coaches and the physiotherapists really helped me, we spent a lot of time together.
“And even though there were sometimes setbacks, we worked hard and gradually saw improvements.
“At some points, it was even fun."
'I knew the fans would be angry'
That strength of character came as no surprise to those who had followed Wirtz' development and observed how the young attacking midfielder had dealt with the controversy of moving from Cologne to rivals Leverkusen in January 2020.
"A transfer from Cologne to Leverkusen is obviously not unproblematic and I knew the fans would be angry," he told 11Freunde.
After spending eight years in Cologne's youth academy, winning the U17 German championship in 2019 and being made captain of the side – before signing for Leverkusen midway through the following season.
Cologne complained that the move was in breach of a gentleman's agreement between themselves, Leverkusen and Borussia Mönchengladbach, three big clubs in the Rhineland (a region in western Germany along the Rhine River), not to poach each other's youth prospects.
But Leverkusen argued that they weren't signing Wirtz as an academy player, but as a senior professional who would go straight into the first team.
"I certainly came in for some stick," recalled Wirtz.
"Obviously it affects you when you've played for a club for so many years and won the youth championship, only to be booed in the stadium.
“But I was mentally robust enough to deal with it."
Thriving under Alonso
By the time he returned to action in January 2023, things in Leverkusen were starting to change.
Xabi Alonso (below, right) had taken charge and immediately began to insert Wirtz into the heart of a team which, the following season, would embark on an historic unbeaten run to a league and cup double.
It was another record for Wirtz, who was crowned player of the season by the German Football League (DFL) after scoring 18 goals and setting up 20 more across all competitions, including a hat-trick to clinch the Bundesliga title against Werder Bremen.
His most vital goal, however, had come in the December away at VfB Stuttgart.
A goal down after being overrun in the first half by the team which would eventually finish second, Wirtz took matters into his own hands, dribbling and bulldozing his way past five Stuttgart defenders to win a corner, and then drawing his team level.
The hard-fought point saw Leverkusen go top of the Bundesliga, from where they never looked back.
'You can't defend against Florian Wirtz'
While that was Wirtz' most important goal, his best had come a month earlier at home to SC Freiburg when he had single-handedly twisted the visitors' defence inside out, doubling back on himself twice inside the box before firing home with his supposedly weaker left foot.
"It was all a bit spontaneous; I just had it in my head that I needed to cut back inside again at some point in order to get a shot away," he explained.
Logical, perhaps, but easier said than done.
"And I got a bit of a kick on my way back inside, so I could have gone down, but suddenly the space opened up for a shot.”
"There aren't many players in the Bundesliga who can do that – just Flo and Jamal Musiala," said Alonso, also revealing why Bayern Munich were so determined to entice Wirtz to Bavaria to link up with their own German prodigy.
"You can't defend against Florian Wirtz." added Freiburg head coach Christian Streich.
"But that's ok, you just have to accept it."
"It's flattering to hear but I'm pretty sure there are ways to defend against me," laughed Wirtz, modestly, when it was put to him.
So far, however, it seems that only Juliane Wirtz, with her experience from the living room in Pulheim, has worked out how.
"Just take him out!" she advised 11Freunde.
But as her little brother has already proven in his young career, that won't work either.
Florian Wirtz will just get up again and continue on his hunt for new records to break.
Matt Ford (@matt_4d_) is a freelance journalist specialising in German football, fan culture and sports politics.
