While Barcelona have enough manpower in the midfield, the management is already looking forward to the 2024 summer transfer and what can be done in the future.
In this regard, if a report from SPORT is to be believed, the Blaugrana entity is expected to go head to head with the likes of Real Madrid and Manchester City for the acquisition of 20-year-old Bayern Leverkusen wonderkid, Florian Wirtz.
Leverkusen’s youngest-ever player in Bundesliga at 17 years and 15 days, Wirtz made his senior team debut during the 2019-20 season and has been a regular for them since, making more than 100 club appearances at just 20 years of age.
Wirtz’s asking price could complicate matters
Given the talent, Wirtz is rightly expected to gather all the attention, and the aforementioned outlet claims that Barcelona are certainly not the only team monitoring his progress.
In fact, Real Madrid happen to be the most interested team while Manchester City are in the race too.
The Cityzens, in particular, are looking at him as a potential replacement for Kevin De Bruyne. As a matter of fact, the Premier League champions are not waiting till 2024 to make their move as they have already inquired about the player’s availability.
Barcelona have had their eyes on Wirtz for a long time now and have been reportedly planning a move for him in 2024.
However, signing the German prodigy will be a difficult task for the Blaugrana, with the reason being Leverkusen’s transfer fee demand for him.
Given the talent, his age, and versatility, Wirtz has a market value of €85 million but Leverkusen are valuing him at €100 million, and in all fairness, the fee is simply unreachable for Barcelona in their current financial situation.
The team from Catalonia is already struggling to comply with the Financial Fair Play regulations and it is safe to say that it is going to take a considerable amount of time and a few player sales to get back on track. Unreachable? Yes! Impossible? Not really.
