Why Liverpool have made Darwin Nunez their record £85m signing

Liverpool have agreed the record signing of Benfica striker Darwin Núñez which may eventually be worth £85 million.

The imminent transfer was confirmed by the Portuguese club on Monday morning, their statement stating Liverpool will pay an initial €75m (£64m) with add-ons potentially increasing the fee to €100m (£85m). Benfica receiving the full amount depends on Núñez reaching goal milestones and winning the Champions League during his spell on Merseyside.

Núñez will begin a medical on Monday having already agreed personal terms on a six-year contract worth around £140,000 a week. The move has seemed inevitable since negotiations began several weeks ago and the 22-year-old striker indicated his desire to move to Anfield, despite interest from several Premier League and European clubs – Manchester United the most prominent rival for his signature.

Not for the first time, Liverpool have been proactive in their long-term planning, the club swiftly reacting to the summer departure of Sadio Mané which looks likely once Bayern Munich make an acceptable offer exceeding £40m – which is more than Liverpool paid Southampton for the Senegal striker six years ago.

Núñez’s arrival represents another major step in the evolution of Liverpool’s forward line as the era of the famed, established front three of Mané, Mohamed Salah and Robert Firmino comes to an end.

Mané is the first of the coveted trio to seek another club having been unable to agree a lucrative new Anfield deal. Salah will be next in a year’s time if the gulf between the salary he anticipates and what Liverpool are prepared to pay cannot be bridged in the coming months. The Egyptian recently stated he will not leave this summer, which was a message that he is prepared to depart on a Bosman deal, free transfer if necessary. Liverpool remain optimistic they can convince Salah to sign fresh terms. Firmino also has a year left on his deal.

Liverpool’s approach to transfers and contract renewals has consistently stripped away emotion to focus on the logical and long-term. Mané and Salah are club legends who have contributed to the Anfield story as memorably as their illustrious predecessors going back to the 1960s. In another era the club’s hierarchy would have diverted more resources to ensure they stayed on Merseyside for the remainder of their career. Both Mané and Salah could have extended with significant pay rises over the past 18 months, but there are limits as to how much owners Fenway Sports Group are prepared to pay those heading into their 30s when younger alternatives who will serve the club for the next five or six years are available. Núñez is 22, while Diogo Jota and January signing Luis Diaz are 25.

While Mané’s imminent exit signals the end of an era, Núñez’s arrival hastens the beginning of another.

Of the starting XI which secured Champions League qualification for the first time in Klopp’s reign on the final day of the 2016-17 season, only three players – James Milner, Joël Matip and Firmino will remain once Mané departs.

Klopp: A good looking boy, and a decent player as well

Núñez finished the campaign with 34 goals in 41 appearances in all competitions, and scored at least six more goals than any other player in the Portuguese top flight. In the Champions League, against some of the most fearsome opponents in world football, he was similarly ruthless: he found the net against Barcelona and Bayern Munich, and struck in both legs of Benfica’s quarter-final against Liverpool.

Little wonder, then, that Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp was interested, particularly given the likely departure of Mané to Bayern Munich.

“An extremely good looking boy, and a decent player as well,” said Klopp after his meeting with Núñez in the Champions League. “Really good, really good. I knew it before but he played pretty much in front of me. Physically strong, quick, was calm with his finish. Really good. If he stays healthy, it’s a big career ahead of him.”

Virgil van Dijk, the Liverpool centre-back and the club's current record signing at £75m, also made it clear how highly he rated Núñez. Speaking a few weeks ago, Van Dijk listed Núñez among the five toughest opponents he has faced, along with Sergio Agüero, Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland.

He is strong, fast, powerful in the air and deadly in the penalty area. To watch his goals this season is to see a player capable of finding the net in all sorts of ways: right foot, left foot, tap-ins, long-rangers, booming headers, penalties.

If only Barcelona had listened to the advice of Luis Suárez, the former Liverpool striker, then Núñez might already be playing for one of the world’s super-clubs. Núñez was still turning out for Almería, in the Spanish second tier, when Suárez told Barcelona to move quickly.

“I recommended Darwin to Barcelona,” Suárez revealed in an interview with journalist Gerard Romero. “I have 15 years of international experience, so I know a thing or two about forwards. I told them: ‘pay attention to this one, he is very good, he has very interesting things.’

“They told me he was at Almería and that he was too young. But instead of now paying €80m, €90m or €100m, they would have paid €15m or €20m.”

Barcelona’s financial troubles did not help their cause, and at that point it was not entirely clear what sort of player Núñez would become.

He had scored an impressive 16 goals in 30 second-tier matches for Almería, having signed from Uruguayan side Peñarol in 2019, but the gap between the second division and the leading teams is evidently a considerable one.

Now he has made that leap, there is no telling how far he could go. Liverpool have won the race for Núñez, one of Europe’s most exciting young forwards, and have a player capable of transforming their attack and terrifying any defence.