Darwin Nunez has become the most expensive signing in Liverpool’s history but back in the past, the Uruguayan almost had to retire at the age of 17.
Darwin Nunez officially signed Liverpool from Benfica for £85 million (€100 million). The Uruguayan will sign a six-year contract, earn £140,000 a week and wear the number 27 shirt. Now that he moves to Liverpool, Nunez will surely have to thank and thank Penarol youth team coach Jose Perdomo. , who discovered, mentored, and fostered then helped convince him to continue the football path instead of retiring early at the age of 17.
And to his parents Silvia and Bibiano, who inspired their son’s perseverance when he moved to Spanish club Almeria. After that, Nunez spent money to buy 6 hectares of land (60,000 m2) so that his parents could build a new house. Growing up from poverty makes Nunez not a spendthrift. Badia, a teammate at Almeria, said: “Once we walked into a phone shop. Nunez chose to get a normal phone while being able to buy something more expensive and trendy. I asked why, he replied, this is enough to answer the call.”
Happy when his former student succeeded, Perdomo texted Nunez teasingly: “I called Nunez one day and said: “You must have forgotten about me.” I also only joked with Nunez but he still remembered. and promised to send me a shirt soon.” Perdomo understands it is a busy time for Liverpool’s record signing but believes Nunez knows how to handle the pressure and shine.
Go back in time 9 years ago when Perdomo went to the small town of Artigas on the Uruguay-Brazil border to watch Nunez in a tournament for under-13s. When Perdomo told the Nunez family that he wanted to take the boy there. Montevideo, the mother of the new Liverpool rookie rebuffed: “Not Darwin anymore!”. She said that she had seen her son Junior move to Penarol to try to get out of poverty and overcome difficulties at a football club, so she didn’t want to have to add another blood of hers to leave.
Nunez took a photo by the old house
Born in Artigas, a city bordering Brazil, Nunez describes his childhood as a time of struggling with poverty. His father worked as a builder and his mother picked up bottles, his family often fell into a situation where there was nothing to eat. “When I was hungry, I would hang out at school and go to the playground to forget,” Nunez recalls. “At night, if I stay at home, the solution to fighting hunger is to go to bed. But the one who is the most hungry is always my mother, because she often gives me her meager portion of food.”
And then somehow, Mr. Perdomo managed to convince Nunez’s mother to let him go to Montevideo. Nunez began to adapt and promoted to Penarol’s B team. While in form, Nunez tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee while playing in the second division of the Uruguayan national league. The news was like a thunderclap because Nunez’s family was poor and the surgery money was certainly not cheap even with the maximum support from the club. But then, Nunez still on the operating table.
In February 2017, he had surgery on his injury and the road to recovery was so difficult that he was forced to return home to his parents. An example for Nunez if he decides to quit football is the attacking midfielder Brother Junior – who at this point gave up his dream of playing professionally and eventually became a policeman. Darwin began to wonder if his fate would be the same.
Initially, he was expected to return from that injury in six months but it was not until 18 months later that Nunez could play. Nunez’s teacher Perdomo admitted that time was like hell for his former student: “Nunez was promoted to the first team and wanted to prove himself but couldn’t because his knee still hurt.”
In November 2017, Nunez was brought on as a substitute in the Penarol first team, but things went wrong. Nunez hurt his knee again and had to be on the operating table again. At this time, Perdomo’s role is extremely important and affects Nunez’s psyche and spirit: “I told Nunez that if it is dedicated, it can be done. Together with other players, we persuaded Nunez. got Nunez to move forward, so everything went smoothly until Nunez left to join a club playing in Europe’s second division.”
That second tier team was Almeria in Spain, where he scored 16 goals in 32 games and caught the eye of many big boys. But then Benfica was faster, so he won Nunez and now there are challenges in front of him in the new Liverpool club shirt.
