Florian Wirtz unveils his ONLY desire | OneFootball

In this decadent age of modern football, Florian Wirtz is a refreshing new kid on the block.

Nowadays, footballers have inflated egos and are driven by money and fame, but Liverpool's potential new signing is the antithesis of all of that.

Far too often in the past, Liverpool have been let down by their younger players or heroes. Michael Owen, Raheem Sterling and now Trent Alexander-Arnold are examples of those who abandoned the ship at Anfield for fame or riches, or even both.

Wirtz is different. He's leaving Bayer Leverkusen on good terms. He's decided not to join their arch rivals and has instead been persuaded by an exciting footballing project, rejecting Manchester City in the process, who also wanted to bring him to the Premier League.

There's a reason why Wirtz doesn't act like most professional players. He doesn't have an agent whispering in his ears, cajoling him to make lucrative moves.

He comes from a good sporting family. His sister is a footballer for Werder Bremen. His parents were both athletes and actually represent him when it comes to negotiations and decisions about his future.

He's an old-school athlete in a (barely) 22-year-old super phenom's body. It's hard to believe that people like him actually still exist.

But it's quite refreshing. Especially when you listen to him speaking about his future.

In Germany's Sports Illustrated which was published in April of this year, so before transfer speculation arose about Wirtz's future, but perhaps around the time when Liverpool could have first made their approach to him, Wirtz was asked about who deals with his finances and whether he is motivated by money.

The German international gave a telling answer, explaining that he is not in charge of his finances and he didn't care about how much money Leverkusen had offered him before joining the German giants.

"When I moved from Cologne to Leverkusen, I didn't think about my salary for a single second, but only about what was best for my career," Wirtz said.

"I don't even think about how much money I have in my account or what I could earn in the future. Of course, you should make sure you get a good contract. But for me, the sporting perspective is much more important than the money. And I think my parents would be angry if I were too fixated on money.

"After I moved to Leverkusen at 16, my parents managed my salary and sent me 150 euros a month. That shaped me. It was important to my parents that I didn't do anything stupid with my salary."

That is a very encouraging thing to hear from a Liverpool perspective. It's a rare mentality to have in the modern game but it makes us all the more excited to have Wirtz in this team.