Liverpool Consider Darwin Núñez Reunion as Free Agent Amid Summer Changes

Liverpool’s summer rebuild has taken another sharp turn. Ibrahima Konaté looks bound for Real Madrid, Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson have already said their goodbyes, and Anfield suddenly feels like a club in the middle of a controlled demolition.

Into that chaos, one familiar name has reappeared on the radar: Darwin Núñez.

Iraola inherits gaps – and an unexpected opportunity

Andoni Iraola walks into a job that is as much about repair as evolution. The Spaniard’s first season on Merseyside will be shaped by the need to correct what went wrong under Arne Slot, and the squad he inherits is full of loose threads.

There are glaring holes, especially in attack. Salah has gone, depth is thin, and the goals that once felt inevitable at Anfield now look like a problem to be solved.

That is where Núñez, improbably, re-enters the story.

Signed by Jürgen Klopp in the summer of 2022 for a hefty fee, the Uruguayan never quite became the ruthless No 9 Liverpool thought they were buying. His time at Anfield is remembered as erratic: chaos, movement, chances galore, but not enough of them taken. Yet it ended with a Premier League title medal, and the sense that there was always more in him than the numbers suggested.

Now, he could be coming back – this time for nothing.

From Al-Hilal to the open market

Núñez’s post-Liverpool adventure has been brief and bruising. He joined Al-Hilal at the start of the 2025/26 season, a marquee name in the Saudi Pro League, and produced nine goals in 24 appearances. Respectable, not spectacular.

Then the rules bit. Foreign player limits forced Al-Hilal into a reshuffle, and Núñez was cut from the squad. His last game for the club came in February, when he scored twice in a 2-1 AFC Champions League Elite win over Al-Wahda. It was a decisive performance – and his final one in their colours.

His contract has since been terminated by mutual agreement. At 26, Núñez finds himself a free agent, assessing his next move far earlier in his career than he would have imagined.

According to TEAMtalk, his representatives have offered him to a select group of clubs. Liverpool are firmly in that conversation. Benfica, the club that launched him onto the European stage, are also expected to push hard for his return. There are even whispers in Spain that Núñez has already given the green light to an Anfield homecoming, with no transfer fee required.

The same Darwin: chaos, chances… and misses

Liverpool supporters will not need reminding of what Núñez brings – and what he leaves on the table.

His famed finishing did not suddenly sharpen in Saudi Arabia. He scored six league goals from a huge 11.48 expected goals, a gap that underlines the enduring frustration of his game. The chances arrive. They always have. The conversion rate still lags behind the volume.

Under Klopp, the pattern was familiar. In the 2023/24 Premier League season, Núñez scored 11 league goals but racked up 27 Big Chances Missed. The year before, his debut campaign, he hit nine league goals and missed 20 Big Chances. He was an xG magnet, a forward who bent games around his movement but rarely matched that disruption with cold efficiency.

And yet, that profile suddenly looks useful again.

A flawed weapon that might be exactly what Liverpool need

Iraola is staring at a thin attacking unit heading into his first season. For a coach who demands intensity, verticality and constant pressure on the opposition back line, Núñez’s skill set makes sense.

He runs channels. He stretches defences. He drags centre-backs into places they don’t want to go. Even on his off days, he creates chaos and, with it, opportunities for others.

On a free transfer, those qualities become very hard to ignore.

Liverpool would not be signing a guaranteed 25-goal striker. They would be signing a known quantity who, even in a rotational role, manufactures chances simply by existing in the penalty area and attacking space at speed. The misses will still sting. The numbers say so. But in a squad short on forwards, the volume of chances he generates could be worth the frustration.

For Iraola, the calculation is simple: can he live with the waste if the overall tide of chances lifts his attack?

Anfield has seen Núñez at his most maddening and his most exhilarating. The question now is whether, in a new Liverpool era stripped of some of its old certainties, that wild edge is a risk worth taking again.