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PLAYER FILE

WIRTZ

Florian Richard Wirtz
GERMANY · GER · ATTACKING MIDFIELDER · #17
3 MAY 2003 · 1. FC Köln (youth) · Bayer Leverkusen · Liverpool
Flo
GERMANY · #17

🌎 WORLD CUP RECORD

0
TITLES
0
MATCHES
0
GOALS
YEARHOSTAPPSGOALSRESULT
█ ATTRIBUTES
PACE 80
SHOOTING 82
PASSING 88
DRIBBLING 90
DEFENDING 54
PHYSICAL 67

⚡ DEFINING MOMENTS

▲ 2022 · A knee, and a tournament missed
In March 2022, months before the finals in Qatar, Wirtz ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee against Köln. The injury kept him out for nearly a year and out of Germany's 2022 squad entirely — the first of the great modern attacking midfielders to watch a World Cup pass him by from a treatment table.
▲ 2024 · The opening goal of a European Championship
On home soil at Euro 2024, Wirtz swept in the very first goal of the tournament inside ten minutes against Scotland in Munich, becoming the youngest German to score at a European Championship. A quarter-final equaliser against Spain followed, though Germany lost in extra time.
▲ 2025 · The hundred-million-pound move
In June 2025 Wirtz left Bayer Leverkusen for Liverpool in a deal reported at around £100m plus add-ons, then a record fee for a Bundesliga export. He arrived in England as one of the most coveted playmakers in the game, his World Cup debut still ahead of him.

📜 CAREER TIMELINE

2020
Joins Bayer Leverkusen from 1. FC Köln's youth ranks and debuts at 17, soon briefly the youngest scorer in Bundesliga history (a record since broken).
2021
Makes his Germany senior debut as a substitute in a World Cup qualifier against Liechtenstein.
2022
Tears his ACL in March; misses the rest of the season and the World Cup in Qatar.
2024
Scores the opening goal of Euro 2024 against Scotland and is central to Leverkusen's unbeaten domestic double.
2025
Signs for Liverpool in a club-record, Bundesliga-record transfer worth around £100m.
2026
Named in Germany's squad for the World Cup — his first finals, after the injury that cost him 2022.
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█ THE ALMANAC SPEAKS
PROF. INKSWORTH:

A playmaker of genuine invention who has done almost everything early — youngest scorer here, a league title there — except play a World Cup. A torn knee ligament in 2022 saw to that. The archive notes only that 2026 is his first finals, and leaves the rest unwritten.

  • He missed the 2022 World Cup not because Germany were absent but because his own knee was — an ACL rupture that March ruled him out.
  • He scored the very first goal of Euro 2024, becoming the youngest German to find the net at a European Championship.
  • His 2025 move to Liverpool, reported around £100m, was then the most expensive transfer ever for a player leaving the Bundesliga.
Ready.
Zone: Historical