Transfer News: Barcelona told to pay €50 million for Darwin Nunez

Barcelona have reportedly been told to fork out €50 million for 22-year-old Uruguayan attacking sensation Darwin Nunez.

According to a report by Catalan outlet El Nacional, Barcelona now know how much they will have to stump up in order to secure the services of Darwin Nunez. Benfica have slapped a €50 million price tag on the 22-year-old Uruguayan attacking sensation, who is starting to get courted by the who’s who of European football.

Darwin Nunez joined Benfica from Almeria in the summer of 2020 and endured a hit and miss maiden campaign with the Portuguese giants. However, after showing some promising signs last term, he has created a lot of momentum early in the new season, including a scintillating display against Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League.

So far in 2021/22, the 22-year-old has  managed a fine tally of six goals in eight appearances across all competitions. At the same time, Nunez is also starting to establish a foothold in the Uruguayan national side while also being tailed by some of the biggest clubs in Europe. And one of his suitors are Barcelona.

Barcelona are in all sorts of problems at the moments, be it on the pitch or off it. The Blaugrana are seeing their debt mount to unsustainable levels while the first-team is struggling to no end and starting to increasingly rely on players who are not even out of their teens yet.

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However, Joan Laporta continues to be bullish about the club’s prospects in the long run and to that end, there are a number of targets being lined up for future transfer windows. Attack is one of the priorities for Barcelona as well, with signing a striker, in particular, being a key decision.

That does make sense considering Sergio Aguero is already in the twilight of his career and will only be a short-term solution if he can perform at his best. In addition, Luuk de Jong is showing no reasons to be signed permanently next summer while Martin Braithwaite could be offloaded soon as well.

As a result, Erling Haaland has emerged as the priority for Barcelona in recent weeks, although the Catalan giants are also keeping an eye out on other young strikers, with Karim Adeyemi one of the options on their radar. And it appears that Nunez is also being pursued by Barcelona, although they will need to pay around €50 million to secure the 22-year-old’s services.

The report does mention that a deal could be struck around €40 million, but raising such a sum might also be a tall order for the Blaugrana if they do not get out of their financial rut. Having said that, it remains to be seen if Barcelona even firm up their interest in the Nunez and whether they are prepared to shell out €50 million to sign the Uruguayan attacking sensation.