Florian Wirtz's agent has revealed that he attempted to secure his client a move to Real Madrid last summer, before Liverpool signed him in a staggering £116million deal.
The mammoth fee was later usurped by the £125m deal to bring Alexander Isak to Anfield from Newcastle, but Wirtz is a player the club will hope to build their squad around for seasons to come.
Had circumstances been marginally different however, the 22-year-old might have been pulling on the colours of Real Madrid amid a reunion with his former Leverkusen head coach, then-manager Xabi Alonso, as his agent Volker Struth explained in a new interview.
'During the period when a move to Liverpool or Bayern was being discussed, I called Xabi Alonso and told him: "You have to take the lad from Leverkusen with you to Real,"', Struth told Bild.
'Xabi replied: "You don’t have to tell me that, you have to tell Florentino Perez (Real Madrid's president)."
'So I actually sent him a message: "Dear Florentino, I’ve told you many times before: I have a player here whom I would highly recommend. Florian Wirtz makes every team in the world better.”'
Perez is thought to have thanked Struth for his offer of the player, in turn referring him to the club's general manager Jose Angel Sanchez to continue discussions.
But amid a bustling transfer window that saw them reel in Dean Huijsen, Franco Mastantuono, Alvaro Carreras and Trent Alexander-Arnold, Real Madrid ultimately decided to pass on another high-profile recruit.
'That year, it simply wasn’t the right time due to the squad and the budget,' Struth added.
'Even Real Madrid’s coffers aren’t always overflowing. But my wish remains that Florian will play there one day.'
The lingering warning that Real Madrid could be waiting in the wings may come as some concern to Reds fans, as Wirtz has begun to find his footing at Anfield after an uneven start to his time on Merseyside.
Memories of the capture of Alexander-Arnold, who departed for just £20m last June after running down his contract, could loom large for supporters who turned on their academy graduate in the later stages of their Premier League-winning season last year.
But there might be some crumb of comfort in the vagueness of Struth's role in Wirtz's ultimate transfer plans, after it was alleged at the time that Wirtz's parents had acted as his agents during negotiations with Liverpool.
After his transfer was confirmed, the club was however forced to deny that they would be paying a transfer fee of £8.6m to his parents Hans and Karin, regardless of the impact they had on their son's future.
