Signed: 2022
Appearances: 33
Goals: 14
Honours: FA Community Shield (2022)

Flexible forward Darwin Nunez was added to Liverpool’s potent array of attacking options in the summer of 2022.

Nunez arrived at Anfield from Benfica, for whom he scored 48 goals in 85 appearances across two successful seasons. 

Uruguay international Nunez moved to Benfica from UD Almeria, who he joined in the summer of 2019 from Club Atletico Penarol in his homeland.

Nunez progressed through the youth ranks at Penarol and would go on to register 22 appearances for them after making his first-team debut by replacing former Red Maxi Rodriguez in a match versus River Plate Montevideo in November 2017.

His senior bow for Uruguay came in October 2019, shortly after his switch to Almeria, and he marked the occasion with a goal.

Nunez ended the 2019-20 campaign with 16 goals in 32 games for Segunda outfit Almeria, with his form in Spain duly attracting the attention of Benfica.

A transfer to the Lisbon club followed and Nunez’s hat-trick away at Lech Poznan in the Europa League offered a tantalising glimpse of what was to come for his new side.

He ended 2020-21 with 14 goals in all competitions and the upward curve of his development steepened in the following season.

Nunez plundered 34 goals in all competitions in 2021-22, with 26 of those coming in just 28 Primeira Liga appearances to earn him the title of the Portuguese top flight’s leading scorer. 

His 10 matches in the Champions League produced six goals, two of which were netted against Liverpool in the Reds’ quarter-final victory over Benfica. 

Nunez struck on his competitive debut for the Reds, stepping off the bench to score the final goal in a 3-1 victory over Manchester City in the Community Shield.

The forward also found the back of the net on his Premier League debut a week later, bagging a goal in a 2-2 draw with Fulham on the opening day of the 2022-23 season.