Bayern Munich have signed Luis Diaz from Liverpool, finally making the attacking addition they have been chasing all summer.
A deal worth up to €75million (£65.1m;$87m) was struck on Sunday, but only after a protracted saga during which, for a long time, Liverpool insisted that the 28-year-old Colombia international was not for sale.
But that stance ultimately softened and, after a weekend of negotiations, Diaz was given permission to leave the Premier League club’s Asian tour on Sunday, travelling back to Europe on Monday to sign a contract until 2029, making him the third most expensive signing in German football history.
So, how did it happen, why were Bayern so determined to secure his signature, and what can we expect from both the German champions and English counterparts Liverpool for the rest of the summer transfer window?
How the deal was done
Diaz first indicated his wish to leave Liverpool in 2024. He has wanted a new contract for some time and, at age 28, knows that his value will never be higher.
However, there has always been a significant gap between the terms of the new deal he was seeking and what Liverpool were willing to offer. There were two attempts to negotiate an extension before this summer, neither of which was successful.
So, while the club would not sanction his departure this time last year — when Manchester City were exploring a move and there was also interest from Saudi Arabia — his desire to leave remained. When it became clear that there was no new contract on the agenda this summer, that ambition hardened.
Diaz wanting to leave never affected his performance. He did not miss any training sessions during the first stop of the club’s pre-season Asian tour in Hong Kong and his application and attitude were of his usual high standard, even though head coach Arne Slot excused him from the friendly against Milan there on Saturday while his future was resolved.
In the background, Diaz and his representatives have been pushing for this move.
Bayern’s pursuit has been informed by their failure to sign Florian Wirtz earlier in the window. Had the 22-year-old Bayer Leverkusen and Germany forward agreed to move to the Allianz Arena, he would have been the key addition of the summer. When he chose to join Liverpool instead, it left Bayern with plenty of unspent budget, but also the need to still make a high-profile signing for technical and political reasons.
Veteran forward Thomas Muller’s contract was not renewed when it expired this summer as he closes in on turning 36 in September (with a move to MLS now imminent). Surprisingly, Leroy Sane chose to move to Turkey’s Galatasaray on a free transfer rather than to accept the Munich club’s offer of an extension to his deal, which also ran out at the end of last season. The perception has been growing, rightly, that Bayern are short in attacking positions and unreasonably dependent on Kingsley Coman’s fitness down their left side.
A lot of the ire has been directed towards Max Eberl, the board member for sport, who has been under considerable pressure from the media since the Wirtz debacle and who has needed to get a major transfer over the line. That scrutiny has been intensifying as targets have come and gone.
Nico Williams chose to renew his Athletic Club contract rather than entertain a move to the Bundesliga giants. An enquiry was made to Paris Saint-Germain for Bradley Barcola, and Bayern were told he was categorically not for sale. A late push for Jamie Gittens also fell at the first hurdle, with the Borussia Dortmund winger’s representatives telling them he was already committed to joining Chelsea.
Finally, in Diaz, they have the player they have been looking for, but the process of securing his signature came with difficulty and at great cost.
Initially, Barcelona were the most interested party this summer, but an enquiry — led by Deco, the Spanish champions’ sporting director — was given short shrift, with Liverpool’s position being that Diaz was not for sale and an important part of Slot’s plans for the coming season.
There was also some doubt within Liverpool whether Barcelona’s well-known and long-running financial issues would lead to them ever being able to table a formal bid. An offer never materialised, although a senior Barcelona source — speaking anonymously to protect their position — insists the money was there to do a deal, with the Catalans prepared to pay a similar amount to the €62m they were ready to pay to trigger Nico Williams’ release clause at Athletic Club. This person added that Barca only pulled out of the race when Bayern joined in earnest and they feared it becoming an auction.
“It’s true that I also liked Luis Diaz, a very complete player,” Barcelona president Joan Laporta told Mundo Deportivo last week. “But due to his circumstances, with Liverpool very entrenched, it was complicated, although I am grateful to the player for wanting to come at all times.”
Diaz’s contract had been due to expire in 2027, but Liverpool were not interested in a cut-price sale. If necessary, they preferred to maximise his on-field value — even if that meant him leaving as a free agent next summer. Liverpool had adopted a similar approach with Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, who both re-signed, and with Trent Alexander-Arnold, who left for Real Madrid.
Bayern’s first enquiry was given the same treatment as Barcelona’s. Eberl was told in late June that the player was not for sale and advised that a transfer was not worth pursuing. But, encouraged by Diaz’s willingness to swap Liverpool for Munich, they came back, and as recently as July 15 had a bid of €67.5million rejected outright.
But Liverpool’s position gradually softened. Bayern’s persistence was a factor but that was not the only reason. Diaz has loved his four seasons at Liverpool and was not creating issues for the club or Slot, but was also intent on leaving, given the lack of progress that had been made towards a new contract. With no realistic chance of a new deal being agreed, a sale at the right price became the preferred option.
Liverpool’s success in the current window also played a part in their shift in attitude. After Diogo Jota’s passing on July 3, the club’s transfer activity essentially shut down as they prioritised supporting players and staff in mourning a much-loved colleague. Once it began again, however, conditions developed whereby Diaz’s departure was conceivable and would not come at the cost of their squad’s strength.
Cody Gakpo and another new signing, Hugo Ekitike, can both play on the left side. Rio Ngumoha, a 16-year-old forward, has made significant progress during pre-season. Should striker target Alexander Isak arrive from Newcastle United, squad depth and Slot’s attacking options will also be significantly enhanced.
Despite their insistence that Diaz was not for sale, Liverpool always had a price in mind for him. Their thinking was shaped by the £80million Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia offered for Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes in June, with the Anfield club feeling he and Diaz were players of similar status and profile.
That kind of fee would, in the PSR (profitability and sustainability rules) era, make selling the player the right move. And when it became clear that Bayern were willing to reach that level financially, it created good faith and the confidence that a deal could be struck.
When talks resumed last week, both teams entered them with the belief that an agreement, for a fee that was in everyone’s interest, was possible. That eventually came on Sunday with Bayern’s offer of €70m with €5m of add-ons being accepted.
From Liverpool’s perspective, there was satisfaction at receiving the club’s second biggest ever transfer fee, behind only Philippe Coutinho’s £142m sale to Barcelona in 2018, particularly for a player who turns 29 in January and who had no sell-on clause in the deal that took him from Porto to Anfield in 2022. The club believes that only seven players over the age of 28 have ever commanded a bigger fee.
What kind of player are Bayern getting?
Perhaps lost in the deal’s context and its contributing factors is Diaz being a superb player.
Bayern feel he was the best attacker available to them and, whatever the price, are delighted at being able to sign him during his prime years. They point to his intense pressing, which so suits their game model, and to the 13 goals and five assists he contributed in the Premier League last season, which was by far his most productive of the three full years he spent with Liverpool.
As Thom Harris observed on The Athletic recently, many of those 13 goals came from close range — converting cutbacks, often from the right, after making runs through the middle.
He took fewer shots per game last season overall, but more from closer to goal. His xG (expected goals) per shot value of 0.17 reflected this increase in poaching chances in comparison to what was his previous trademark strike, where he would cut in from the left and curl shots into the far corner — more spectacular, but harder to achieve consistently.
Bayern believe this is nothing like the signing of fellow forward Sadio Mane from Liverpool three years ago, which ended so acrimoniously. At 30, Mane was beyond his best years when he arrived in Munich and was tasked with replacing Robert Lewandowski in a transitional attack. Diaz is a peak-age star with a pre-defined role in their team.
At Liverpool, he was primarily a traditional left-winger who would stay close to the touchline but he can play multiple attacking positions, which was part of his appeal to Bayern. He has been signed primarily to work on the left of coach Vincent Kompany’s attack, but as an adaptable player (he was deployed more infield by Slot last season, and also as a false nine) he is an ideal addition to what is already a fluid group.
He mirrors many of the out-to-in habits of last summer’s successful signing from the Premier League, ex-Crystal Palace star Michael Olise, just in reverse, and is seen, long term, as the kind of winger who can both adapt to Jamal Musiala’s propensity to drift and profit from Harry Kane’s playmaking. His intense pressing also makes him suited to
And while Diaz’s age alters the perception of the deal and introduces an element of sunk cost, he will immediately become one of the outstanding players in the Bundesliga, while also equipping his new team with the attacking variation and power they feel they lacked in last season’s Champions League, losing in the quarter-finals to eventual runners-up Inter.
Whatever the external opinions about it may be, Bayern are delighted with this transfer.
What could be the repercussions for both clubs?
Diaz will likely be Bayern’s biggest signing of the summer, but not their last. They remain committed to other attacking targets, with Musiala still at least four months away from playing again after suffering a broken leg in the recent Club World Cup, Serge Gnabry into the final year of his contract and having turned 30 this month and Coman’s future uncertain.
An agreement for Stuttgart striker Nick Woltemade remains unlikely, with two offers already rejected, but interest in RB Leipzig winger Xavi Simons remains. There is pending sale revenue, too. Winger Bryan Zaragoza and left-back Adam Aznou will be leaving in the near future, and there is Premier League interest in Joao Palhinha, whose move from Fulham last summer has not been a success.
For Liverpool, this is both a well-negotiated deal and a very timely agreement. Having already spent so heavily on Wirtz, Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez, a significant sale revenue has obvious value in PSR terms.
The Athletic has estimated Liverpool’s PSR profit on Diaz to be around £48million.
When combined with the £30m received from Leverkusen for Jarell Quansah, their £10m made on Caoimhin Kelleher by selling him to Brentford, the £8.4m fee from Real Madrid for Alexander-Arnold and the £3m paid for Nat Phillips by West Bromwich Albion, their transfer profit this summer more than offsets the new annual amortisation costs brought on board via the new signings, and will go a long way toward counterbalancing the wages paid to those recruits this season.
And that’s before even considering the wage savings that sales naturally bring about.
This doesn’t mean the transfer business at Anfield has finished for the current window. While they are well covered in terms of left-sided attackers, the news that Isak wishes to explore opportunities away from Newcastle this summer is likely to see Liverpool redouble their efforts to land the 25-year-old Sweden international.
Before signing Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt last week, they had expressed interest in a deal for Isak worth £120million, only for Newcastle to say they had no wish to sell. Now that the player has made it clear that he wishes to leave, the dynamics are different.
There is also the issue of needing additional cover at centre-half, given Quansah’s departure. Liverpool admire Marc Guehi, the Crystal Palace and England defender, but it is unclear whether they would be willing to meet the FA Cup holders’ valuation, given he is due to become a free agent a year from now. The possibility of signing Guehi on a free transfer then, at age 25, may be more appealing.
In terms of outgoings, Liverpool remain open to offers for Darwin Nunez, with interest in the Uruguay international striker from Saudi Arabia.
Additional reporting: James Pearce, Pol Ballus, David Ornstein
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb)