Liverpool: Al-Hilal ‘offer’ Slot substitute £20.8m yearly salary with £84m transfer lined up
Saudi Pro League club Al-Hilal have offered Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez a contract worth £20.8m a year, according to reports.
The Uruguay international signed for the Reds in 2022 from Portuguese side Benfica in a deal worth around £85m but the transfer has not been the success all parties had hoped.
Nunez has scored 37 goals in 122 appearances for Liverpool since joining from Benfica with the Liverpool striker in and out the team under Jurgen Klopp.
However, Nunez is now on the substitutes’ bench more than in the starting XI under new Liverpool boss Arne Slot with the 25-year-old making just seven starts in his 15 Premier League appearances this term.
It’s hard to argue with Slot’s decision to use him sparingly with Liverpool top of the Premier League table and Nunez scoring just two goals in the league this term.
And now Spanish publication Fichajes claims that Al-Hilal ‘wants to sign’ Nunez from Liverpool ‘for 100 million euros (£84m)’ and the Reds ‘could be willing to listen to offers for their striker’.
While Anfield Watch has revealed in an ‘exclusive’ that Nunez ‘has an incredible contract offer to consider’ from Al-Hilal with the Saudi Arabian outfit ‘ready to pay Nunez around £400k per week if he moves there’, which equates to £20.8m per year.
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The report adds:
‘While we’re sure Nunez would prefer to carry on in European football, this would represent a gigantic leap in his wages. For comparison, no one has ever earned that much money playing for Liverpool.
‘Mo Salah is the closest, with his £350k-a-week deal currently close to that mark. But there’s no question that Nunez could not earn that kind of money anywhere else.’
Former Chelsea and England midfielder Joe Cole insists that Nunez reminds him of Tottenham forward Timo Werner, who is currently on loan from RB Leipzig.
Cole told Paddy Power: “When I think of Darwin Núñez, I think of an extreme version of Timo Werner – both are clearly top players, but something isn’t clicking for them at the moment. For Werner, he’s won trophies throughout his career, he’s played international football for Germany, which is similar for Darwin, and we know he’s a wonderful player.
“Liverpool spent a lot of money on him, but something could have happened which we don’t know about and that is why he’s not performing as well. He could be carrying a niggle, maybe he’s unhappy or it could be a drop in confidence, but I’m sure it will be a complex situation.
“Ultimately, it will come down to the player to do a bit of soul-searching and figure out how he’s going to get back to his best, but what I would say is that there is a top player in there. He can do better than what he’s currently showing, and he needs to come through this tricky part of his career, which I’m sure he will.”
