More than a year after Liverpool broke their transfer record to land him, Florian Wirtz is at the centre of a rumour many predicted before the ink was dry on his contract. Two former Premier League scouts told Football Insider on Monday that the 23-year-old wants out of Anfield and back to the Bundesliga.
Former Everton scout Bryan King said Wirtz would head “straight to Bayern Munich” if a sale were sanctioned. Ex-Manchester United chief scout Mick Brown, quoted in the same piece, said the Germany international would be “a much better fit for the way they play” than for a Premier League he has struggled to adjust to.
Liverpool paid Bayer Leverkusen £116m for Wirtz in the summer of 2025, with Bayern priced out at the time. The paradox now, if the Football Insider claim is right, is that the player would prefer the destination the market always expected him to end up at, only a year into his Anfield project.
Wirtz camp: committed to Liverpool
Not everyone agrees the door is opening. Wirtz’s father and adviser Hans-Joachim Wirtz recently told Read Liverpool his son intends “to peak, flourish and ultimately conclude at Liverpool”, while the player himself has called Anfield “the right place to get better”.
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Football365 reported last week that Wirtz “has no desire to return to Germany and, in particular, no interest in joining” Bayern Munich, and that leaving Liverpool “has never crossed his mind” despite the criticism he has faced.
Liverpool “no appetite for a sale”
Liverpool’s own posture, as reported by Anfield Index on 20 September, is “calm, measured and firm”, with “no appetite for a sale, no active process under way”. The club still regards Wirtz as central to the squad, and head coach Andoni Iraola, appointed in June 2026, will be given the full season to work with the German.
Bayern’s own reading is more cautious than the Football Insider version. TEAMtalk reported on 13 September that the German champions “remain firmly interested in his situation” and are “continuing to monitor developments closely”, but with no active pursuit under way while Liverpool refuses to entertain offers.
Nicol tells Liverpool to drop him
The numbers explain why the noise around him will not go away. Wirtz has scored seven goals with 11 assists in 54 appearances for Liverpool across all competitions, according to Football365, and has started the current campaign with a single assist and no goals in his first five league games.
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Steve Nicol, speaking on ESPN and quoted by FootballTransfers, said “he’s not part of my front four” and argued Dominik Szoboszlai should be Iraola’s first-choice attacking midfielder instead.
Football Insider suggests Bayern could test Liverpool’s resolve with an offer in the January window. Liverpool’s stated position is that no such approach would be entertained.
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