Florian Wirtz made the switch from Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool this summer, but a fresh transfer twist has surfaced just hours before the Reds face Real Madrid.<\/p>\n
The Champions League is back on Tuesday night as Premier League champions Liverpool host La Liga giants Madrid at Anfield. All the pre-match attention is centred on Trent Alexander-Arnold, who is set for a fiery reception on his first return to Merseyside after his controversial move to Los Blancos.<\/p>\n
Following Alexander-Arnold\u2019s exit, Liverpool splashed the cash on several big-name signings, including Wirtz, Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez. Wirtz arrived in a then-club record \u00a3116 million deal, a fee later eclipsed when Isak joined from Newcastle for \u00a3125 million.<\/p>\n
However, the 22-year-old has found life in England difficult, failing to score and registering just three assists in 14 games across all competitions. His slow start has already sparked speculation over a potential exit, with Spanish outlet Defensa Central claiming Real Madrid are monitoring his situation. It’s reported that Xabi Alonso has urged the club to keep tabs on the German midfielder\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro has now revealed that Wirtz would have chosen Madrid over Liverpool had the Spanish giants made an offer in the summer. Speaking on SPORT1’s Doppelpass, Carro explained that Wirtz dreams of winning the Champions League \u2014 something he sees as more realistic away from Leverkusen.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would absolutely have gone to Madrid if Xabi had pushed for it, but he doesn\u2019t have the same influence there as he does with us,\u201d Carro said.<\/p>\n
Instead of moving for Alonso\u2019s former players, Madrid signed Alexander-Arnold, Dean Huijsen, Alvaro Carreras and Franco Mastantuono.<\/p>\n
Ahead of tonight\u2019s clash, Alonso defended Wirtz, insisting the youngster will come good at Liverpool.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just needs time to adapt,\u201d Alonso said. \u201cHe has the talent, personality and competitiveness to succeed. I\u2019ve got no doubt he\u2019ll show his class \u2014 maybe not tomorrow, but soon enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Florian Wirtz made the switch from Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool this summer, but a fresh transfer twist has surfaced just hours before the Reds face Real Madrid. The Champions League is back on Tuesday night as Premier League champions Liverpool host La Liga giants Madrid at Anfield. All the pre-match attention is centred on Trent …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":53594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/resize-10-1.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53595,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53593\/revisions\/53595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/53594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}