In the past couple of weeks, it’s been rare to read the Portuguese media and not find stories about Darwin Nunez, who’s been having an excellent season for Benfica.
Following a hat-trick at the weekend, the striker now has 31 goals, including those scored against Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Ajax and Liverpool.
And it turns out that with a big race for his signing being formed, today we see one club being named as the main contender for the purchase. That’s Newcastle United.
The information is featured in a big piece from newspaper Record about Darwin.
There, they bring a few words from agent Jorge Manuel Mendes, who talks about the competition for his signing this summer.
“Conditions will be created for there to be an auction on him. May Benfica make the jackpot,” Jorge Manuel Mendes told Record.
And when speaking of candidates, Mendes pointed out that Newcastle are perhaps the only club capable of “dropping those €120m”.
Darwin is protected by a release clause worth €150m, and his price could still go up depending on what he does against Liverpool in the Champions League this week.
Today, Newcastle also get mentioned by newspaper O Jogo, who says the Magpies have the player ‘in their sights’.
There they quoted manager Nelson Veríssimo, who said it’s “natural that Darwin arouses the interest of big clubs and that he leaves at the end of this or the next season”.
