Revealed: Liverpool have agreed £128m Darwin Nunez deal as astonishing Erling Haaland details revealed
Darwin Nunez cost Liverpool far less than Man City paid for Erling Haaland even though his transfer fee is potentially £34million higher, sources have told Football Insider.
On the face of it, Man City’s £51m Haaland deal is a relatively inexpensive one, especially taking into account the extraordinary impact he has made on the pitch.
But the numbers of the package dwarf what Liverpool paid Benfica for Nunez and have topped up with wages, bonuses and other costs.
The fee was £64m rising to a potential £85m with performance-related add-ons, and Nunez agreed a six-year contract worth a basic £140,000-a-week.
That salary is topped up by bonuses, including for goals, but the package works out at around £128m.
It is less than half of what City are paying Haaland, who joined in the summer from Borussia Dortmund when they triggered his release clause.
His contract is for one year less – it runs until 2027 – and is worth a basic £375,000-a-week.
But it is the top-up costs that make the deal an astonishingly expensive one for City and in world sporting terms.
A recent report calculated that bonuses, many of which are easily achievable, make Haaland’s deal worth £850,000-a-week, equivalent to £44.2m-a-year.
Across five years, and adding in the transfer fee, that makes the cost of the Norwegian superstar to City alone worth £272m.
It is inarguable that the Premier League leaders are getting plenty for their money.
Haaland has already scored a remarkable 20 goals from 13 City matches and goes into Sunday’s showdown against Liverpool with seven more Premier League goals than his closest challenger, Harry Kane.
By contrast, Nunez is a diamond that still requires some polishing and his 10 matches have yielded four goals so far.
In other news, Liverpool told to U-turn on signing Kylian Mbappe after ‘huge’ update.