PREMIER League champions Liverpool have agreed a club-record deal worth up to £116 million to sign Florian Wirtz after Bayer Leverkusen finally settled on a fee for their playmaker.

The Reds had two bids rejected, the last one of £113m which would have seen £100m paid up front with performance-related add-ons, but have finally got the deal over the line.

Liverpool will still pay an initial £100m — comfortably surpassing their own record outlay — but the performance-related add-ons, if achieved, would make it a potential British record.

Leverkusen had valued the 22-year-old Germany international around £125m but regardless, Liverpool’s overall outlay could surpass the £115m Chelsea paid Brighton in 2023 for Moises Caicedo — who turned down Anfield after the Seagulls had accepted an offer which was subsequently matched by their Premier League rivals.

Striker Darwin Nunez was their previous record signing in 2022, although they have not paid the full £85m as he has not met all the requirements for certain add-ons to be due.

Liverpool, like a number of top European clubs, had been watching Wirtz for some time but did not consider themselves front-runners for his signature.

However, after Manchester City pulled out, reportedly due to the spiralling costs of the whole package, and Wirtz expressed a preference for Merseyside over Bayern Munich, sporting director Richard Hughes changed gear.

Talks were already ongoing with Leverkusen over Jeremie Frimpong, who became the first new addition to Arne Slot’s squad in a £30m deal late last month, which made the line of communication easier.

Hughes’s connections with his former club Bournemouth mean he was also well-placed to progress talks with the Cherries over the signing of left-back Milos Kerkez, a player he originally brought to the Premier League.

The full extent of Wirtz’s fee will only be paid if Liverpool enjoy a sustained level of elite success and the club’s view is that should that be the case, the considerable cost will have been recouped on the pitch.

With Kerkez next on the list their summer spending could edge close to £200m, made possible by financial discipline in the last two windows which saw only Federico Chiesa brought in for a cut-price £10m last August.

That approach was justified when Slot’s team won the title but with their rivals strengthening it was apparent additions were required in certain areas.

It is likely to be their biggest summer window since 2018 when Naby Keita, Fabinho, Xherdan Shaqiri and Alisson Becker were recruited for around £170m, with Virgil van Dijk having signed for £75m the previous January.

Owners Fenway Sports Group have, despite their ”Moneyball” reputation, not been afraid to splash out big fees for transformative players like Van Dijk and Alisson – and Wirtz, one of the hottest prospects in Europe, falls into that category.

The fact the forward, who only turned 22 a month ago, opted for Anfield over more lucrative offers from other European clubs is also seen as validation of the work Slot has done and the squad he already has at his disposal.