Darwin Nunez has responded to Luis Suarez’s message welcoming him to Liverpool.
Since sealing his move to The Reds on Tuesday, Nunez has been fairly active on Instagram. His latest post, a picture of him posing at the AXA Training Centre with Yerba Mate in hand, simply read ‘Siempre urugauyo’ – always Uruguayan.
Of course Liverpool can count perhaps the most famous Uruguayan of the 21st Century as a distinguished former player.
And Suarez made sure he gave a warm welcome to his compatriot with some words of encouragement.
“I was the first one too! But I hope you come first in GOALS. Hug!” wrote the 35-year-old.
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“I am proud of your steps, I hope I can perform as you did in Liverpool,” replied Liverpool’s new number 27.
We hope so too Darwin, but perhaps without the leaving for Barcelona bit at the end!
Hat-trick of Uruguayans at Liverpool
Darwin is actually the third Uruguayan to play for Liverpool. But we’ll forgive you if you can’t recall the other.
Sebastian Coates arrived at Liverpool just a few months after Suarez in the summer of 2011. Fresh off the back of being voted the best young player at that year’s Copa America, big things were expected of him.
As it turned out, the standards expected of the then 20-year-old were set a little high.
Although he’ll be remembered by a lot of Liverpool fans for an acrobatic goal against QPR in 2012, he struggled to establish himself in a relatively poor team.
After 24 appearances across two seasons, Coates left on a series of loans. His Liverpool career finally came to a close as he left for Sunderland in 2015.
Since then, he has forged an excellent career in Portugal with Sporting. Now into his eighth year at the club, Coates lifted the title as captain in 2020/21.
The now 31-year-old is a teammate of both Suarez and Nunez for the national team. Despite his Premier League struggles, he has gone on to win 47 caps for his country.
Best of three
A mixed bag then so far for Uruguayans at Liverpool. Suarez was one of the most gifted players ever to wear the red shirt, whereas Coates had obvious potential that went unrealised at Anfield.
Hopefully Nunez can tip the balance in a best of three.
There’s a feeling that our new-boy can one day even surpass the legacy built by Suarez. Liverpool’s former number 7 clearly thinks that can be the case.
If he does, we’ll have one heck of a player on our hands.