Where will Wirtz rank in list of most expensive signings?

Florian Wirtz is set to become the 10th footballer to move for a nine-figure fee after Liverpool agreed to pay Bayer Leverkusen an initial £100m for the Germany attacking midfielder.

Including add-ons, the Reds could end up paying Leverkusen £116m.

The move will make Wirtz, 22, Liverpool’s club record signing, the most expensive German football ever – and the biggest sale by a Bundesliga club.

Liverpool already have the world’s second most expensive goalkeeper – Alisson – and centre-back – Virgil van Dijk.

The British record for an initial fee remains the £107m Chelsea paid for Benfica midfielder Enzo Fernandez in 2023.

Six months later they signed Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo for an initial £100m, which could rise to £115m.

Wirtz’s initial fee means he moves for exactly half the world record, which remains the £200m PSG paid Barcelona for Neymar in 2017.

Here BBC Sport looks at some of the most expensive players ever – by position, league and nationality.

Chelsea’s £107m addition of Argentine Fernandez remains the British transfer record.

There is then a four-way tie on £100m – with three having potential add-ons.

Wirtz’s could end up being the biggest of those with £16m in add-ons, while Caicedo’s could reach £115m.

Declan Rice moved from West Ham to Arsenal for a fee which could reach £105m, while Jack Grealish’s move from Aston Villa to Manchester City in 2021 was for a flat £100m.

Chelsea also rank high up with their £97.5m signing of Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku, while Manchester United’s acquisitions of Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba (£89m), Ajax winger Antony (£82m) and Leicester defender Harry Maguire (£80m) are next on the list.

Until the Wirtz transfer is finalised, Netherlands centre-back Van Dijk, at £75m, is Liverpool’s record signing. Alisson’s move from Roma for £66.8m is next.

Striker Darwin Nunez cost an initial £64m, rising to £85m, when he joined from Benfica – and midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai cost £60m from RB Leipzig in 2023.

The two most expensive signings of all time were made by Paris St-German in the same summer.

PSG first spent £200m on Barcelona’s Neymar in 2017, before adding Monaco’s Kylian Mbappe, initially on loan, in what became a £165.7m deal.

No other Ligue 1 signings make the top 40.

Randal Kolo Muani is the next highest after his £76.4m move from Eintracht Frankfurt in September 2023.

Spanish clubs have made three of the top 10 most expensive signings of all time, although – perhaps surprisingly – none involve Real Madrid.

Atletico Madrid’s £113m move for Benfica forward Joao Felix in 2019 is third on the all-time list, when you exclude potential add-ons for Barcelona signings Philippe Coutinho (£105m, rising to £142m) and Ousmane Dembele (£96.8m, rising to £135.5m).

Level with Fernandez in fourth is the £107m Barcelona paid Atletico for Antoine Griezmann in 2019.

Coutinho and Dembele are next on La Liga list.

The Italian league’s record spend was on a 33-year-old, with Juventus paying £99.2m in 2018 for Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

Next comes Juve’s £75.3m signing of Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain in 2016, then Inter’s £74m move for Lukaku from Manchester United in 2019 – which only ranks as Lukaku’s third biggest move.

As would be expected, Bayern Munich are responsible for the majority of Germany’s biggest signings – topped by their £86.4m move for Tottenham striker Harry Kane in 2023.

The record before that was Lucas Hernandez’s £68m move from Atletico Madrid in 2019.

The biggest purchase by a team outside of Europe’s top five leagues is Al-Hilal’s £77.6m move to sign Neymar from PSG in 2023.

Al-Nassr paid £64.5m to sign Aston Villa striker Jhon Duran in February.

Until the relatively recent Saudi spending spree, most of the biggest signings by non-European clubs had been made in China between 2016 and 2019.

Rice and Grealish jointly hold the title of being the most expensive British footballer.

Jude Bellingham’s 2023 move from Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid for a initial £88.5m puts him third.

Then comes England captain Kane to Bayern, and Wales winger Gareth Bale, who made an £85m move from Tottenham to Real Madrid in 2013.

Maguire, the £80m man, is followed by Jadon Sancho, who moved in 2021 from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester United for £73m. Mason Mount is next following his £55m move from Chelsea to United.

Scott McTominay is the most expensive Scot, costing Napoli £25.7m last summer from Manchester United – narrowly beating the £25m Arsenal paid Celtic for left-back Kieran Tierney in 2019.

Argentina’s most expensive player is Fernandez and Spain’s is £71m Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who was signed from Athletic Bilbao.

France’s is Mbappe, Brazil’s is Neymar and Van Dijk leads the way for Dutch players.

Ronaldo is top for Portugal, Belgium’s record is Lukaku and Germany’s will be Wirtz.

Most of the priciest goalkeepers have gone to Premier League teams, led by Chelsea’s £71m outlay on Kepa.

Alisson’s move to Liverpool the same summer ranks second, followed by Manchester United’s signing of Inter Milan’s Andre Onana in 2023 for £43.8m.

Next is Manchester City’s 2017 signing of Benfica’s Ederson for £35m.

The Ederson move ended Gianluigi Buffon’s 16-year reign as the world’s most expensive keeper – following his £32.6m move from Parma to Juventus.

Manchester United’s £80m signing of Maguire in 2019 remains the world record fee for a defender.

Second on the list is the £77m Manchester City paid for Croatia full-back Gvardiol in 2023.

Van Dijk’s £75m move from Southampton to Liverpool sits third, with Wesley Fofana’s £70m switch from Leicester to Chelsea not far behind.

The most expensive midfielder is Argentine Fernandez after his £107m move to Chelsea on 1 February 2023.

In second place is Coutinho, who cost Barcelona £105m when they signed him from Liverpool in 2018.

And then there’s the four-way £100m Premier League tie – with Caicedo, Wirtz, Rice and Grealish.

Neymar and Mbappe’s moves to PSG in 2017 make them the two most expensive players, let alone forwards, ever for a combined £365.7m.

Atletico Madrid’s £113m move for Benfica forward Felix in 2019 is third in all positions.

Next among forwards is the £107m Barcelona paid Atletico for Griezmann, also in 2019, then Lukaku’s £97.5m move from Inter Milan to Chelsea in 2021.