How much Liverpool have actually now paid Benfica for Darwin Nunez

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Liverpool have paid another instalment to Benfica for the transfer of Darwin Nunez in 2022.

The Reds spent an initial £64m to take Nunez from Lisbon to Liverpool 18 months ago. With a final potential transfer fee of around £87m though, the Uruguayan is technically the Reds record signing.

And according to Portuguese outlet O Jogo, Nunez is now getting closer to officially taking that title from Virgil van Dijk.

They claim that after the 24-year-old made his 35th start for Liverpool on Tuesday, Benfica were paid around £4.3m.

That reportedly followed on from an identical payment once Nunez had hit 10 starts for the club last season. As a result, the Reds have now paid around £72.6m for Darwin.

There’s said to be another £4.3m instalment to pay if the forward makes it to 60 Liverpool starts. Furthermore, a final chunk of £8.6m will be owed if the Reds win either the Premier League or Champions League while Nunez is at the club.

Liverpool pay up for Nunez

It would be interesting to hear if Liverpool knew all they do about Nunez now, back in 2022, would they still have pulled the trigger on his signing.

For plenty of supporters, the answer would likely be no, Liverpool should have spent the money elsewhere.

Darwin has failed to impress a certain segment of the fanbase ever since the very first day he joined. Others are still happy to be won over, but don’t necessarily expect to be.

For the majority though, the Uruguay international still represents a good punt. His signing was of course on the expensive side, but that’s what you pay for a young, potential superstar who’s just plundered 34 goals, as Nunez had for Benfica. He still could be worth twice that in a couple of years.

Liverpool’s No.9 may not have justified his enormous price-tag just yet, but he certainly hasn’t been the flop people are desperate to label him as.

Should the Reds end up forking out the full amount for Darwin, it will surely be money well spent anyway. He’s already shown that if they are to win the Premier League this season, then he’ll have a big say in it. In that scenario, you’re happy to pay the money.

For now, Nunez will continue to officially sit behind Van Dijk as Liverpool’s record signing. It’s fair to say that the forward will never prove to be as good a value as his captain. But that’s an incredibly high bar.

Besides, whatever we eventually pay for Darwin is irrelevant. He’s ours, we love him and he’s only going to get better.