Florian Wirtz: Liverpool's Rising Star and Germany's Key Player
Florian Wirtz walked into the Premier League with a record fee and a reputation, and discovered what every gifted newcomer finds out quickly in England: nothing comes easy here.
His first year at Liverpool has been uneven on the surface, a season of sharp peaks and frustrating dips that has given pundits plenty to chew on. Yet look a little closer and a different picture emerges. Between December and January, while others were flagging under the festive schedule, the 22-year-old caught fire – five goals and three assists in 15 games, the kind of output that changes matches and softens even the harshest analysis.
Those flashes have been enough for Jürgen Klopp to double down on his belief that Liverpool’s investment will pay off in the grandest arena of all.
Wirtz, the centrepiece of Nagelsmann’s Germany
If the Premier League has seen Wirtz in glimpses, Germany have built around him. Under Julian Nagelsmann, the playmaker has become non-negotiable. He has started every game for the national team over the last year, not as a prospect being eased in, but as a pillar of the system.
The standout? A ruthless performance against Switzerland, where he ran the game and left with two goals and two assists. That night underlined what Klopp and Nagelsmann both see: a player who doesn’t just fit into a structure, but bends it to his will.
It explains why Liverpool moved in June 2025, breaking their transfer record to bring him to Anfield. On Merseyside, he has already pushed his way into the core of the side. The tempo of the league, the physicality, the scrutiny – Klopp is convinced his former club’s new star has handled all of it.
Speaking to BBC Sport about who might emerge as the standout player at this summer’s World Cup, Klopp didn’t hesitate to nail his colours to Wirtz.
“I hope Flo Wirtz will have a fantastic, fantastic World Cup. I think he has everything you need to be a standout player. I don't want to put any pressure on the boy. I really think he showed already how good he can be in a difficult season.”
No caveats. Just a manager who has seen this kind of talent before and recognises the signs.
Old pupils, new stage
The 2026 World Cup in North America will be a reunion of sorts for Klopp, even if he watches it from a different vantage point these days as Red Bull’s head of global football. Across three countries and dozens of stadiums, his former players will criss-cross the continent, many of them now leaders of their national sides.
One potential meeting has already captured his imagination: Scotland against Brazil, Andy Robertson against Alisson Becker, two of his longest-serving lieutenants thrown together on opposite sides of the halfway line.
“I hope my players will have a great World Cup,” Klopp said. “I hope that Andy Robertson and Alisson Becker can enjoy that when they meet each other. Can you imagine that you play together for such a long time and Scotland qualifies first time, I don't know, since when, for the World Cup, and you meet each other, your friends, your mutual friends, and you meet each other in a game like that? I mean, that must be one of the happiest moments in your life.”
The image is powerful: Robertson, the Scotland captain who dragged his country back to the big stage, staring down Alisson, the goalkeeper who anchored Liverpool’s greatest modern nights. Shared medals, shared memories, separated for 90 minutes by a World Cup knockout tie.
A World Cup laced with Liverpool’s fingerprints
Robertson and Alisson are only part of the story. Klopp’s roll call of names underlines just how deeply his Liverpool era is woven into this World Cup.
- Virgil van Dijk, marshalling the Netherlands.
- Mohamed Salah, still the relentless force for Egypt.
- Sadio Mané, the talisman for his country once again.
- Alexis Mac Allister, already a world champion with Argentina and chasing the feeling a second time.
“I wish Virgil will have a great tournament. I really wish for Mo that he will have a great tournament. I honestly wish that Sadio [Mane] will have a great tournament,” Klopp continued. “Macca [Alexis Mac Allister], if he won, if they win it again. It was so nice to see him with a medal around his neck and when he came back to Brighton.”
There is pride in those words, but also a thread of curiosity. How many of them will define this World Cup the way they once defined Champions League nights and title races? How many will carry their nations the way they once carried Liverpool?
And then there is Wirtz, the newest member of that extended family, standing on the brink of his first global tournament as a central figure for both club and country.
Klopp is betting that the “difficult season” was just the prelude. The World Cup will reveal whether Florian Wirtz is merely another bright talent, or the next great German playmaker to seize the biggest stage and never let it go.
