Liverpool Eye PSV Star Paul Wanner With Bayern Munich Set To Have A Say On The Midfielder's Future

Liverpool's continued question marks in the middle of their team have led to players from around Europe being linked with the 20-time champions of England, and the latest of those is PSV Eindhoven midfielder Paul Wanner.

Austrian-born but raised in Germany, Paul Wanner's rise to elite-level sports was slightly more unconventional than others. He joined the Bayern Munich youth team aged 13, and just four years later would get his opportunity in the German giants' first team, after a number of players tested positive for COVID-19 in the 2021/22 season. 

This led to his debut at just 16 years old, and he became the club's youngest ever to play for Bayern Munich, emphasising how highly he was rated in and around the Bundesliga club.

He would go on to make his UCL debut at the start of the next season, but due to being so young and having top-level professionals ahead of him in the ranks, he wasn't getting enough game time to enhance his development. 

So Bayern would send Wanner out on a couple of loan spells at both SV Elversberg in Bundesliga 2 and FC Heidenheim in the Bundesliga, where he would play 69 games across the couple of years away from Munich, registering 12 goals and six assists across the two seasons. 

Despite looking bright in both of these spells away, it wasn't enough for him to stay in Germany, and he would be sold in the summer of 2025 for €15 million (£12.9 million) to Dutch side PSV Eindhoven, a side known for developing young players, getting the best out of them in a less intense and scrutinised league. 

And he again impressed, playing 40 games so far in the Netherlands, registering five goals and assists from a deep-lying midfield position some of the time, which allows him to get more touches of the ball and demonstrate his creative prowess, rather than the attacking midfield position that he had played frequently up to this point.

This has led to some drawing comparisons to the likes of Pedri, who similarly can play in both the number 10 and 6 positions, and has complete control over games of football, but of course at a higher level than Wanner.

These performances led to him switching national allegiances after representing Germany throughout his youth international career, with Wanner opting to represent Austria in the hope of featuring more heavily, particularly at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. 

This switch did earn him a spot in Ralf Rangnick's Austria World Cup squad, but he failed to make much of an impact on the tournament, failing to register a goal or an assist, and was quite underwhelming overall during the summer. 

But that hasn't put some of Europe's elite off a possible move for the 20-year-old, with the Reds said to be one of those clubs keeping an eye on the progress of Paul Wanner.

According to Christian Falk, Liverpool are showing an interest in signing Paul Wanner. He goes on to say that Bayern Munich have a buy-back option for Wanner, but are not currently keen on re-signing the midfielder and triggering that clause.

Major European clubs are said to be monitoring his development in Eindhoven, with LFC's interest in particular stemming from a focus on nurturing young talent.

Paul Wanner is only 20 years old, has a high ceiling for development, and would fit the Reds' recruitment policy, but is he really the solution to Liverpool's midfield issues? 

Liverpool's issue has been in transition; the central midfield areas are very open and vulnerable to the opposition running through and having a clear run at the back line, with too many of the current midfield options, such as Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch, and Dominik Szoboszlai, attacking-minded.

So Paul Wanner, who is a forward-thinking, creative midfielder, wouldn't appear to be a solution to the club's defensive frailties.

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