Real Madrid wanted to sign new Liverpool forward Darwin Nunez this summer, but were unable to register him.
That’s according to journalist Fabrizio Romano. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Romano claimed that Madrid were actually ‘really interested’ in the Uruguayan.
However, due to Nunez not possessing a European passport, the deal couldn’t be done. Ironically, it was The Reds’ nemesis in the Champions League final – Vinicius Junior – who inadvertently helped clear the path for Liverpool.
“Real Madrid were really interested after missing on the Kylian Mbappe deal,” he said. “One of the strikers wanted by Real Madrid was Darwin Nunez, but it was not possible from a passport point of view.
“Darwin has no European passport, and for Real Madrid it was not possible to register Darwin Nunez in case they found an agreement with Benfica, so it was impossible to complete that negotiation.
“So Real Madrid had a possibility to sign Darwin Nunez, but it was not allowed by the rules in Spain, because Vinicius Junior has still not received his European passport. This is a really key point for this Darwin Nunez story”
After a couple of damaging losses to Real Madrid, it’s nice to win one.
Competing with the best
The more you hear about Liverpool’s signing of Nunez, the more you come to realise just how much of a coup it is. It seems as though half of Europe was after the Benfica hitman this summer.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be a shock that Liverpool came out on top in the end. We do have one of the very best manager’s in the game and have been to three out of five Champions League finals.
For those reasons, and many more, we should be able to compete with the likes of Madrid on a frequent basis.
That doesn’t always happen, though. We’re well used to seeing players like Aurelien Tchouameni sometimes inexplicably choose to join other clubs over our own.
Depressing as that may be, it does make it all the sweeter when we manage to win a race.
There’s big expectation on our new number 27. He come with a huge, £64m price-tag. Not only that, he’s also being tasked with being Sadio Mane’s direct successor.
No player in football is ever a sure-bet for anything. Look at the sheer volume and quality of clubs in the running for Darwin though. It would seem a fair assumption that we’ve got ourselves a diamond.
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