The Athletic's resident renowned English transfer journalist David Ornstein, Sky Sports' renowned Italian transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano, and Goal's English Liverpool team correspondent Neil Jones, all reported on Saturday that Liverpool is now leading the race in Bayer Leverkusen wonderkid Florian Wirtz's transfer battle.

According to David Ornstein, Liverpool has begun very positive negotiations with Leverkusen on the transfer fee for Wirtz. Although no agreement has been reached yet, the negotiations between the two sides have entered a very advanced stage.

Fabrizio Romano revealed that currently, Wirtz has given priority to joining the Reds and has basically reached a preliminary agreement with Liverpool on personal terms.

He added that since Wirtz himself has expressed his willingness to "step out of his comfort zone", Bayern Munich's top management has begun to expect that they may have no hope of making a breakthrough and are ready to withdraw from the transfer battle.

Neil Jones added that, after arranging for the player and his family to fly to Blackpool for a secret meeting a few days ago, the Reds arranged for Wirtz and his family to fly directly to Liverpool on Thursday (May 22).

Like the last time, this meeting was mainly arranged by Sporting Director Richard Hughes.

In this meeting, CEO Michael Edwards also participated.

At the same time, Wirtz and his family also met and talked with head coach Arne Slot.

Unlike outsiders' speculation, the club's former legendary head coach Jürgen Klopp has never involved in Wirtz's transfer plan at all.

Both Romano and Jones said that the Premier League champions, which is currently leading the race in this transfer battle, is willing to break the rules and offer Leverkusen an offer of more than £100 million, and is also willing to make an exception for Wirtz to offer him a high wages, bonuses and add-ons that is almost equal to Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Andy Robertson and Dominik Szoboszlai. 

Now everything that is left is wait for the player and Die Werkself to complete this transfer with Liverpool.

About Florian Wirtz

Wirtz, who is only 22 years old, was born on May 3, 2003 in Pulheim, Germany. He is 1.77 meters tall and primarily plays as an attacking midfielder. He can also play as a left winger or right winger.

Wirtz played for the Köln youth academy when he was young. In 2019, he moved to the Bayer Leverkusen youth academy and completed his Bayer Leverkusen first-team debut in the Bundesliga match against Werder Bremen in May 2020.

Because of his outstanding performances, Wirtz and Bayern Munich's Jamal Musiala are both hailed as one of the most anticipating midfield wonderkids in German and even European football and have since attracted much attention from the footballing world.

Since his debut, Wirtz has played 197 times for Leverkusen in all competitions, scoring 57 goals, assisting 65 times, and has won the Bundesliga once, the DFB-Pokal once and the DFL-Super Cup once with the club, as well as reaching UEFA the Europa League final once.