It’s a surprise that Barcelona wants to sign Darwin Nunez during this summer of big changes at the Nou Camp.
And the Liverpool striker could take the place of star player Robert Lewandowski, who is going to be let go along with a lot of other big names.
LaLiga cut Barcelona’s pay cap to just over £174 million, which means they will have to get rid of their highest-paid players to move forward with their plan to rebuild.
Lewandowski’s salary will go up to £27 million next season, making him the highest-paid player. He is almost certainly going to be cut.
Nunez makes a lot of money at Liverpool, but not as much as the Polish forward. This puts him well within Barcelona’s price range.
Many others are set to leave at the end of the season, so the people in charge at Nou Camp think they can meet Liverpool’s offer if they are willing to do business.
With a deal that lasts until 2028, the Reds will not want to let go of the Uruguayan striker, who they bought from Benfica for a record £85 million two years ago.
But the people in charge at Anfield know they need to give new manager Arne Slot a good summer fund.
That would happen if they tried to bring Mo Salah to Saudi Arabia.
The Reds are more likely to listen to Barcelona, though, if the Middle East doesn’t make them an offer.
Nunez is happy where he is at Anfield and isn’t trying to get moved. But it’s interesting that people in South America say he really wants to play for the big Spanish teams.
Benfica quickly signed him after Barcelona tried to sign him from Almeria three years ago. Barcelona thought they had a deal in place before Benfica stepped in.
After coming to Merseyside in 2022, Nunez has become a huge hit with fans. He was a big deal in Portugal.
He has scored 23 goals so far this season, but he hasn’t scored in seven games. No player in Europe’s top five leagues has missed more big chances.
He missed a lot of easy chances against Luton, Manchester United, and Crystal Palace, which was not good.
Some mean people called Nunez the Uruguayan Andy Carroll, the forward who only scored 11 goals in two years for Liverpool. This came a year after Jamie Carragher, a former Liverpool player, said that Nunez’s fierce hitting style reminded him of Alan Shearer.
Everyone who wears a Reds shirt wants to show new manager Slot why they should be in his plans. Today’s home game against Tottenham is the latest chance to do that, and Nunez is getting extra attention.
Some people in England aren’t sure if he will stick with it, but here in Artigas, 6,600 miles away, the people who know him best are sure he will win in the end.
Both physically and mentally, Nunez has won bigger fights.
First, he had trouble missing home when he moved 430 miles to join Penarol, Uruguay’s biggest club, from San Miguel, the youth club where he started playing football.
While he was away from his parents Bibiano and Silvia, things got even worse when his brother Junior quit to work and help support the family. He was then left all by himself.
It broke Nunez’s heart so much that he almost gave up when he hurt his cruciate knee and had to miss a year of football.
He might have done it without the help of his older brother and the people he hangs out with in San Miguel.
Nunez swore that nothing would stop him once he agreed to stay.
Only Daniel Suarez, the head of San Miguel and a close friend of Nunez’s, knows him better than most people. He told everyone about those rough early days.
“Junior was playing at Penarol when Darwin got there, but he went back to Artigas to look for work,” Suarez said.
“It was very hard because his brother was such an important person in his life.”
“He was in Montevideo by himself, and it was hard because he missed his parents.” He had even more bad luck when he hurt his cruciate knee. That’s when the anger really set in.
“At age 16, he wanted to go home and quit football.” He was really sad.
Junior was very important in getting him to fight back, and he even moved back to Montevideo to help him get used to his new home. Of course, his parents came to see him often.