FC Barcelona has been offered former Liverpool striker, and current Al-Hilal star, Darwin Nunez on loan according to SPORT – citing anonymous sources.
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FC Barcelona has been offered former Liverpool striker, and current Al-Hilal star, Darwin Nunez on loan according to SPORT – citing anonymous sources.
Barça and Al-Hilal are currently negotiating the permanent transfer of full back Joao Cancelo.
A final agreement regarding the Portuguese is said to be “imminent”, with Cancelo signed on a two-year deal for around $11.5 million (€10 million) by the Catalans to operate as either a left or right back.
In the middle of talks regarding the 32-year-old, however, Nunez has been offered to Barça through his agent Jorge Mendes. Mendes also represents Cancelo, while being a close confidant of President Joan Laporta.
Al-Hilal signed the Uruguayan from Liverpool for $63.4 million (€55 million) in 2025, which was a considerable loss on the $98 million (€85 million) paid to Benfica for his services three years earlier.
It must be noted that Barça came close to landing Nunez when he played for Almeria. In the end, though, Benfica broke its own transfer record at the time in 2019 by purchasing the forward for $27.6 million (€24 million).
That development came back to bite the Blaugrana in a fashion. In September 2021, Nunez scored a brace in a 3-0 Champions League win over the La Liga giant at the Estadio Da Luz and fled to Anfield by the end of that term.
Fast forward half a decade and the landscape has shifted entirely. Nunez is struggling to find his feet in the Middle East after not kicking on the in Premier League. Once more, Barça needs a striker.
Julian Alvarez is the preferred choice to succeed Robert Lewandowski. Thus far, though, a bid of $115 million (€100 million) has been knocked back by Atletico Madrid despite the Argentine reportedly agreeing terms with Barça.
Nunez could still prove useful to FC Barcelona
SPORT explains that Barça has declined to take part in any sort of talks for Nunez up until now.
Alvarez remains the top priority. However if nothing comes to fruition, and Barça fails to land a targetman elsewhere, Nunez could still prove an interesting prospect.
Rather than spending money on someone that might not fit, a loan for Nunez is a low-risk, high reward prospect for Laporta and Co. We’ve seen this recently with La Liga winner Marcus Rashford, who’s now once more plying his trade at Manchester United following success under Hansi Flick.
Though he might not have turned out as expected of him in either England or Saudi Arabia, Nunez is still a regular international that recently starred at the World Cup. A move to Spain could revitalize him, while also keeping Ferran Torres on his toes should he not complete a transfer from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain amid renewing his contract.