Darwin Nunez: from the desire to buy his parents a house in Liverpool

The summer transfer window has just begun, and the top transfer is near.

Uruguayan striker Darwin Nunez, who became one of the discoveries last season, a step away from moving to Liverpool. Portuguese Benfica, which owns the player, announced an agreement on the transfer of the striker to the English grand.

ISPORT.ua tells about the life and career of Nunez, who in a short time managed to get to the top club.

Childhood and adolescence
Darwin was born in the Uruguayan town of Artigas, located in the north of the country right on the border with Brazil.
In 2013, at one of the matches between the youth teams in Artigas, he was noticed by a representative of the capital Peñarol. Darwin traveled across the country to try himself there, but eventually returned home. A year later, Nunez went to the Peñarol Academy again.

This time there were two of them - he went with his brother Junior. The boys dreamed of one day going out on the field together, but it did not happen as expected. Due to financial problems in the family, only one of the brothers could stay in the team.

"You have more talent than I do," Darwin told his brother and went to his hometown, leaving Darwin alone in Montevideo.

A few years later, Darwin said, "I am very grateful to my parents, they gave everything for me. My mother collected bottles on the street, and my father worked on the construction site from morning till night. Now I dream of buying them a house in Artigas."

Peñarol, the beginning of a professional career
The beginning of Darwin's career was not the best. And it's not that he didn't have something on the football field.

He first applied for a championship match at the age of 16. But the debut had to wait another two years. The reason for this is trivial - an injury. Nunez suffered damage to the crosses.

He made his debut in November 2017, replacing the legendary Argentine midfielder Maxi Rodriguez.

A little later it became clear that with the return to the game Nunez was in a hurry. The knee did not heal completely, I had to play because of the pain, and in a few months I had to lie down again under a knife.

After the second operation, Nunez was treated until the victorious end. In October 2018, in a match against Phoenix, he scored his first goal in his adult career.

In his home club, he was used as a center forward and right winger. And interestingly, he has no great scoring achievements. In 22 games, he scored just 4 goals, and in addition to his debut, there was another hat-trick in the match against Boston River.

Youth team
Given the not the best achievements of the player in the club, a big role in his career also played for the junior national team of Uruguay.

Although here his scoring achievements were also not great. At the South American Youth Championship, he did not score a single goal in seven matches when his team finished third.

The trip to Poland in the National Cup 2019, which was won by Ukraine, turned out to be the best in individual terms. In the first round, Nunez met with Erling Holland and not only defeated the Norwegian team, but even scored one of the goals.

Later there was a goal against New Zealand, but Honduras, which Holland scored 9 goals in one match, Darvey did not score. In the 1/8 finals, Uruguay lost to Ekavdor.

But, as people close to the situation say, the main thing in the youth was that it was here that Darwin began working with a psychologist, who took him to a new level.

Moving to Europe
In 2019, Nunez received an invitation from the Spanish club Almeria, which played in the Spanish Segunda.

"I called Barreri (president of the Peñarol club, author's note) and said it was my chance to help the family financially. Fortunately, he understood me and let me go," Nunez said.

The footballer's mother also commented on his transfer.

"Darwin said on the phone that he wanted to leave so that we could have a better life. And I replied that he should do it not for us, but for himself."

According to some sources, Almeria paid about six million US dollars for the young Uruguayan, according to others - 13 million euros!

Darwin did not start playing for the Spanish club immediately, at first there was an adaptation, then there was a small injury, but from the 12th round of Segundi he started playing in almost every match. In total, in his only season in Almeria, he played 30 matches and scored 16 goals, which allowed him to become the fourth in the list of top scorers of the championship.

Benfica
The Portuguese superclub bought Darwin immediately after his first season in Europe, paying him a record 24 million euros. This amount was a record for Benfica, Almeria and even Segundi!

Interestingly, in those transfer window, the club from Lisbon signed four expensive newcomers to the line of attack, one of whom was Pedrinho - a future Shakhtar player.

Replacing the Brazilian, Nunez made his debut for a new team. In his first season, Nunez played 45 games for the team (30 started at the start, but played all 90 minutes 

in the middle) and scoring 14 goals in all tournaments. But he distinguished himself as an assistant, giving 12 assists.

In the second campaign, Nunez revealed himself completely, now he has become the team's top scorer! In 28 matches of the Portuguese championship - 26 goals and the title of top scorer. Moreover, in the Champions League he scored six goals at once - Bayern, Ajax, twice for Barcelona and twice for Liverpool.

Liverpool
Perhaps it was in face-to-face meetings with Benfica that Klopp and the Merseyside management decided that Liverpool definitely needed this guy.

The transfer drama of his signing lasted a long time, at first the contender for the Uruguayan was a sworn enemy of the "reds" - Manchester United. Still, Darwin moved to Liverpool. To pass, they say, for big money.

It is unknown how the player's career in the new team will turn out. But millions of fans around the world will be watching him next season.