DARWIN-WIN MOVE FOR ME
I’m humble, hard-working and I can pay back my parents for all they did
LIVERPOOL’S £90million signing Darwin Nunez has already scored the most important goal of his life.
When the 22-year-old Uruguayan striker was having kickabouts with his mates in the streets of Artigas, a city situated close to the Brazilian border, he would dream of one day being good enough to buy his parents a new house.
The humble family home Nunez shared with dad Bibiano, mother Silvia Ribeiro (below) and older brother Junior was built on the flood plain of the Cuareim River and the few sticks of furniture they owned would often be washed away.
Nunez has always believed that his mission in life is to look after the people who sacrificed so much to give him a chance to escape the poverty he was born into.
“I don’t ever forget where I come from,” Nunez said.
“I am part of a humble, hardworking family.
“My father worked as a labourer on a building site for eight or nine hours every day and even when his own shoes were falling off his feet he would still try to find money to buy me football boots.
“My mum was a housewife. But she walked through the streets of the town collecting empty bottles to sell back to the stores.
“We had a house in Artigas – but it was never in good condition because of the floods.
Hungry
“My first thought when I started playing football was to buy a house for my parents and set up
a business for them. I have kept working hard to please my mum and dad because they did everything for me.”
Nunez added: “A father’s love is unique. My dad showed me that not everything in life is material.
“Yes, I often went to bed with an empty belly. But the one person in the house who went to bed with the emptiest belly was my mum.
“A mother does everything for her children. My mum often went to sleep at night without having eaten because she wanted to feed the rest of us. I grew up in a poor neighbourhood but I am proud of where I came from.
“It was there that I learned how important it is to share things.
“When I was with my friends, we’d all bring something we could all share, like a snack or candy.
“When I got out of school at
My labourer dad’s shoes were falling to bits, but he still found the money to buy me boots... my mum searched the streets for bottles to sell back to shops. Our house always flooded.
My goal was to set them up after all they’ d done for me. e.
3pm, I’d go straight to training because mum wasn’t at home. She was out collecting bottles.”
Nunez was spotted by a scout from Club Atletico Penarol and moved 370 miles to Montevideo at 14 to join their academy.
Brother Junior was also on Penarol’s books and had just started training with the first team when he was forced to call time on his fledgling career to return to Artigas and help with a family emergency.
Junior refused to take his brother back too, and urged him to realise both their dreams. But Nunez’s route to the top from there was still uphill.
He needed an operation at 16 to repair knee-ligament damage then went back under the surgeon’s knife after playing through the pain barrier to make his senior debut.
Nunez moved to Europe to join Spanish side Almeria in 2019 and a year later was snapped up by Portuguese giants Benfica for £20.5m.
Now he’s become Liverpool’s record signing, with the Reds paying £64.2m plus another £25m in addons. But his spectacular rise has often been plagued with doubts.
Nunez became the target of social-media trolls while playing for Uruguay at the Under-20 World Cup in 2019.
He explained: “I saw comments that actually made me feel sick. But the answer was simple.
“Now I switch off my phone until after the game – and I only listen to the people who have been supportive.”