Darwin Nunez says his wife has been blown away by the support he has received from Liverpool fans this season.
After a tricky start to life at Anfield, Nunez is now blossoming into the fine young forward Liverpool hoped he would. On the back of an excellent February, the 23-year-old even scooped the club’s Player of the Month award for the second time.
And speaking to liverpoolfc.com after collecting his trophy, Nunez made sure he thanked the Reds supporters – on behalf of both he and his wife.
“First of all, I’d like to thank the fans for that because as soon as you come out to warm up and then you hear your name being sung by the fans, it’s just incredible and it gives me goosebumps,” said the Uruguayan.
“I’ve never heard anything like that before. It’s really great for me and my wife too. Even she has said to me, ‘It’s incredible how they support you and are always behind you.’ She always says to me that when I was struggling a bit with form in the first few games, the fans were always showing their support for me.
“They never gave up on me and were always onboard with me. Now it’s all about thanking them and trying to make these fans as happy as possible.”
Liverpool keep the faith in Darwin
This is absolutely lovely to hear from Darwin. We’ve become used to interviews with footballers being bland and formulaic over recent years. But you can really feel that Nunez means what he’s saying here.
It can often be easy to forget that footballer’s loved ones see and hear everything that goes on inside a stadium. If negativity surrounds a player, they themselves can block it out on the pitch. But for the loved ones, they feel it first hand from those around them in the ground.
In Darwin’s case, there could easily have been a little negativity creeping in at times. The former Benfica man has certainly been subject to plenty of unnecessarily harsh treatment on social media. Not generally from Liverpool fans though, it must be said.
As he struggled to justify his price-tag on the pitch – and then ridiculously got sent off on his Anfield debut – it would have been easy to turn on him. But instead, the Reds support went completely the other way. He may not be perfect, but he’s ours.
His passion and work-rate shine through on the pitch and he clearly gives it everything in every game he plays. Fans recognise that kind of thing. They never lost faith in him. Now that Darwin has settled down a little, that faith is being rewarded. We love you Darwin, keep doing your thing!