Darwin Nunez
Nkunku is undoubtedly one of the most popular names bouncing around the walls of the transfer market, but he is not the hottest new commodity. There is one fresher face beginning to appear in the dreams of Europe’s elite technical directors: Darwin Nunez. Nunez has only been able to rent a car around Portugal—where he plays his football—for about a year, but you’re never too young to command a transfer fee of over £60 million.
Nunez played his early football in his home country of Uruguay before moving to Spain’s La Liga 2 with Almeria. It was here that he registered his first massive season in professional football, finding the back of the net 16 times in the span of 30 games. Benfica noticed the young forward two years ago and took a chance on him. Despite having never played a top flight professional game outside of a handful in Uruguay, the Portuguese giants slotted him right into the team after his fantastic 2019/20 season in Spain’s second division. Nunez cost Benfica a club-record £20 million, which was seen as a huge gamble for a relatively unproven player. However, it’s about to earn the club one of its largest sales ever, behind only Joao Felix and maybe Ruben Dias.
The 22-year-old Uruguayan enjoyed a decent debut campaign in Liga NOS with five goals and 10 assists in 28 games. He did excel in other competitions that season though, finishing the year with 25 total goal contributions (13 goals, 12 assists) across 2,600+ minutes of football with As Aguias. While that’s undoubtedly a decent return, he really came into his own, establishing himself as an elite striker at the start of the recently concluded campaign.
Nunez not only excelled in the Portuguese top division (26 goals and four assists in 28 games), but also the Champions League (six goals in 10 games). The young striker finished the season with 34 goals in 41 games. That’s a very good return all things considered, which becomes eye-popping when analyzing his minutes. Nunez played just 2,821 minutes in total, which translates to a goal every 83 minutes he played, one of the best on the continent this season amongst strikers who played that many contests.
This prolific return has seen Nunez attract a lot of attention over the last few months. Premier League giants Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and even Tottenham are all said to have shown interest in the target man this summer. He’s been closely linked with the Red Devils, but Sadio Mane’s pending departure from Merseyside could change the narrative in this saga. The Blues can be seen as an outside contender, but should Lukaku depart, they’ll likely elevate themselves into the conversation.