Darwin Núñez scored 34 goals in all competitions with Benfica last season
Darwin Núñez could not have wished for a better audition against future head coach Jurgen Klopp than scoring two goals against Liverpool in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
The 22-year-old scored one goal in each stage when Benfica fell to a 6-4 overall defeat, bringing his score to six in 10 games in the competition last season and helping to convince the team of the Premier League to agree on what a club could be. – a record £ 85 million deal for the Uruguayan international, surpassing the £ 75 million paid by Virgil van Dijk in 2018.
With Sadio Mane about to move on, Klopp will continue to evolve from his front line with a player who was coveted by some of the biggest clubs on the continent even though he had just completed his second top-flight season in Europe.
His compatriot Luis Suárez has been playing the drums for the youngster since he first joined Almeria three years ago, but Barcelona’s financial limitations meant that they could not take advantage of the veteran striker’s recommendation.
“I have 15 years of international experience, so I know a thing or two about strikers,” Suarez recalled. “And I told them, ‘Pay attention to this one, it’s really good, it has some really interesting stuff.'”
Instead, he is another of Suarez’s former clubs who looks set to benefit from another emerging South American talent who perfected his craft in Portugal, as the Reds also signed Luis Diaz from Porto in January.
The evolution of Darwin
Núñez scored in a 3-3 draw at Anfield in the return leg of the quarter-finals of the Champions League
When Núñez joined Benfica in September 2020, after scoring 16 goals in his only season in Spain, it was for a club record of 24 million euros (£ 20 million), but in an initial campaign affected by Covid and injuries, stuttered instead of scared and was recorded. only six goals in the league, although with 10 assists, the maximum of the division.
“When he arrived he was a little scared. I said he thought it would be the biggest failure in the history of Benfica because it cost a lot of money and what we saw at the beginning was a little scary,” said Filipe Ingles. of the podcast. Benfica FM.
“I even said I would buy him the shirt if he scored 30 goals in a season because he never thought he would be able to do something like that, but he has improved a lot these two seasons.”
Ingles was happy to eat his words and buy a ‘Darwin 9’ shirt, as the young striker made up for Benfica’s faith with 34 goals in all competitions last season, 26 of which came in 28 league matches.
“He’s advanced a lot. He’s physically turned into a monster; he’s very physical and fast, and another thing that’s improved a lot is confidence,” Ingles continued.
“He was the type of striker who sometimes lacked confidence to score; he always tried to pass the ball to another player and that’s something in the first season we all saw he had this problem. In that second season he gained a lot more confidence. ., started scoring goals “.
Former Benfica coach Jorge Jesus said this when the club bought Núñez’s record two years ago, predicting that it would soon be worth much more.
“All this decision-making, finishing and speed,” Jesus said. “It was Benfica’s most expensive purchase, and when there is no pandemic, it will be the most expensive sale.”
A direct replacement for Mane?
Núñez’s impressive goal-scoring return and impressive stature give him the image of a traditional new number, and of his 48 goals in 85 games at Benfica, 92% came from within the area.
But the striker’s fierce speed has also seen him deployed on the left for both the club and the country and his former side of Almeria, Jose Gomes, told the Portuguese newspaper Record that the player will be ideal for the Klopp’s system to Liverpool.
“Klopp likes to play looking for spaces behind opposing defensive lines,” he said. “Which means we can say that Darwin will feel like a fish in water, because speed and fast attack are characteristics that he favors.”
With Mane about to leave, Takumi Minamino on sale and Divock Origi already gone, Núñez will replenish Klopp’s attacking options and it is the loss of the Senegalese striker’s departure that will need to be addressed more urgently. .
Núñez contributed a total of 36 goals and assists in the top flight and in the Champions League last season at 23 in Mané, and in nine games less, while averaging every 81 minutes and proved to be more clinical than the player 30-year-old coming out with a shot conversion. rate from 31.4% to 17.6%.
Not in vain, the Uruguayan has had more touches in the rival area every 90 minutes -8.4 to 6.7 of Mané- and has also completed more races (1.8 to 1.6), although that Mane has created more chances, with 1.5 per game to 1.2 from Núñez.
“I don’t know if he feels ready to come and take the Premier League by storm,” Ingles added.
“He’s a little shy and I don’t know if he speaks English or has that confidence; he can do the same – pass instead of shoot – especially when he looks to the side and has Mohamed Salah or Roberto Firmino.
“But if the club gives him confidence and time to develop, he has the potential to be a great striker in the Premier League.”
From Penarol to the Premier League
Núñez has won 11 matches with Uruguay and has scored two goals
It has been a quick climb for Núñez and he is leading a life that would have been completely unrecognizable to the boy who considered Big Brother Junior as his hero.
“Junior was the person who taught Darwin how to play football and it was his motivation to play in an academy when he was young,” Uruguayan journalist Taimur Yamani told BBC Sport.
“He comes from a very poor family where they usually lacked food, with his mother selling bottles of milk and his father being a builder. His parents made many sacrifices just to feed the family.”
Former Uruguayan international José Perdomo was the scout who discovered Núñez and, after taking Junior to Penarol a couple of years earlier, finally convinced the boys’ mother to let her little brother leave Artigas. in the capital, Montevideo.
“After impressing La Luz and San Miguel, in 2013 Perdomo, a legend and explorer of Penarol, went to his house and told them that he wanted Darwin to move to Montevideo. So at the age of 14 he went leaving his family behind in Artigas to take the big step, “Yamani explained.
“He broke his previous cruciate ligament when he was just 17 and fought so hard that he almost quit football while trying to rehabilitate his knee. Then his brother Junior had to quit football to help his parents make money. to eat.
“When Darwin saw the sacrifices his brother and family were making, he decided to stay and join the first team so that he could give his family the financial help they needed.”
Núñez had to overcome more setbacks and it took more than a year after his debut to score his first senior goal in October 2018 after a new knee surgery, before earning his move to Europe. .
“When he was in top form, nothing stopped him and he was one of the best players in Uruguay in 2019,” Yamani added. “When Núñez signed for Almeria, he became known in Uruguay as the new Edinson Cavani.”
And Perdomo believes there is infinite potential for the child he first recruited not even a decade ago.
“What really excites me about Darwin is that I think he still has a long way to go, he has no roof,” he told BBC Sport in November. “It is the future number nine of Uruguay.”