Darwin Nunez frozen out as he counts cost of Liverpool blocking transfer

Darwin Nunez finds himself out of the picture already at Al Hilal, just a matter of months after making the move to Saudi Arabia from Liverpool, with his future in serious doubt

Darwin Nunez has been omitted from Al Hilal's squad(Image: Getty Images)

Darwin Nunez’s time in Saudi Arabia has already gone sour, with the former Liverpool striker finding himself frozen out at Al Hilal just six months after making the move to Saudi Arabia.

The Uruguay international left Anfield last summer after three years, having been unable to truly live up to the hefty price Liverpool paid to sign him from Benfica in 2022.

Although a move to the Middle East was seen as an opportunity for Nunez to kick-start his career, it hasn’t worked out that way. The 26-year-old has scored just nine goals in 24 appearances, and now he finds himself completely out of the picture as Al Hilal battles for the Saudi Pro League title.

Having signed Karim Benzema in January - much to Cristiano Ronaldo’s digruntlement - the 19-time champions have chosen to omit Nunez from their squad for the remainder of the season.

Saudi clubs can only name eight foreign players born before 2003 in their 25-man squads, and Benzema has now effectively taken Nunez’s place after switching from Al Ittihad. The former Liverpool star will now have to make do with appearances in the Asian Champions League.

“The decision was difficult, but that’s the job of a coach. He makes many decisions every day, even in every training session,” Al Hilal boss Simone Inzaghi said last week.

“Nunez and Pablo [Mari] are good players. I want them in all competitions, but we know the restrictions on registering foreign players. Time was of the essence, and I made the difficult decision. I calmly informed the excluded players of my decision.”

Nunez may well be wondering now whether his luck would have been different had Liverpool not blocked him from making an earlier exit from Merseyside.

The striker had been the subject of interest from another Saudi side during last year’s January transfer window, with Al Nassr having pushed hard for his services.

Darwin Nunez could have been playing alongside Cristiano Ronaldo had Liverpool not blocked a move to Al Nassr(Image: AFP or licensors)

That would have given Nunez the chance to play alongside Ronaldo and former Liverpool star Sadio Mane, but, as The Athletic points out, the Reds blocked the move, not wishing to disrupt Arne Slot’s squad as it looked to complete its title push.

Nunez was subsequently allowed to leave Anfield in the summer, and was strongly linked with Napoli before Al Hilal came calling. Although it was seen as an opportunity for him to rebuild his confidence after a frustrating final year with Liverpool, it hasn’t gone to plan.

Whether things could have been different had he joined Al Nassr instead is up for debate, although he might well have been able to prevent Ronaldo from going on strike recently, with the five-time Ballon d’Or winner not happy at his side’s lack of transfer activity.

For now though, Nunez can only wait until the summer for a potential switch, and the chance to finally get his career back up and running.