From playing for Almería during the outbreak of the pandemic to being one of the ‘nine’ with the greatest projection. From playing in the Second Division fields to becoming the most expensive striker in the history of Liverpool. Only two years have passed since then, but Darwin Núñez’s life has taken such an unexpected turn that it should even surprise the Uruguayan striker himself.
From next season he will play in one of the great sacred temples such as Anfield. After several weeks of negotiations, this Monday Benfica made official the transfer of Núñez to the red club in exchange for 75 million euros. A figure that can increase to 100 million if all the variables are met, a priori very affordable.
The Portuguese entity reported that the agreement is subject to the pending signature of the player to wear his new shirt. Once the pending fringes have been resolved, Núñez, 22, will be announced by Liverpool and will reinforce a luxury attack that already has Mohamed Salah, Luis Díaz, Diogo Jota, Firmino… and for now also Sadio Mané.
Everything indicates that the arrival of the Uruguayan will cause the transfer of the Senegalese to Bayern, a signing that could also trigger the operation of Barça by Robert Lewandowski. With the addition of Erling Haaland to Manchester City, it is clear that this summer the goal changes colors.
Born on June 24, 1999 in Artigas and from a humble family that often could not even feed him, the opportunity in the elite came from Peñarol. He was burning stages in the lower categories of the legendary Uruguayan club until debuting with the first team. In 2019 he signed for Almería, who in one year received twice what he had paid for the player (24 million) when Benfica acquired him. The Andalusian club will get more of a cut now, since he had reserved 20% of the amount of a future transfer.
Since then, Darwin Núñez has played 85 games with the Lisbon team, scoring 47 goals. The 26 of this last campaign placed him as the top scorer in the Portuguese championship. In total he scored 34 in 41 games this season, six in the Champions League: two of which against Barça in the group stage and two against Liverpool in the quarterfinals. Jürgen Klopp took note and it did not escape him.
If the English team finally ends up paying the 25 million variables, it will be the most expensive footballer in the club’s history. At the moment, the record remains Virgil van Dijk, who cost 85 million. The most expensive attacker so far was the Colombian Luis Díaz (47 m), also from Portugal last winter market.
