Arsenal have suffered a setback in the pursuit of Darwin Nunez as Manchester United emerged as one of the front runners to sign the Benfica striker.
The Uruguayan has burst onto the scene this season, scoring 27 goals in all competitions this year, and has delivered on the biggest stage helping the Portugal giants reach the Champions League quarter-finals. Nunez scored the winner against Ajax in the last round to set up a glamour tie with Liverpool and put in a brilliant performance against the Reds in the first leg of their last eight clash despite being on the losing side as Jurgen Klopp's men ran out 3-1 winners.
Nunez has attracted the attention of several top European clubs including Arsenal and Manchester United as they both look to sign a new striker in the summer. Scouts from both sides were at the Estadio da Luz midweek to watch Nunez get on the scoresheet against Liverpool, according to the Daily Express .
But The Athletic claims United, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain are the three teams in pole position to win the race to sign Nunez as initial talks are expected to conclude in the coming week. This comes as a huge blow for Arsenal who are in desperate need of a new no.9 after losing out on Dusan Vlahovic in January before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang joined Barcelona.
Nunez is valued at around £60million but Benfica boss Nelson Verissimo is hopeful his side can get close to the astronomical fee paid for Joao Felix, who joined Atletico Madrid for £113million in July 2019.
He said: "What do you think? Darwin is an excellent player, he has shown all his quality. He has helped the team a lot, it is true that the team has also helped him a lot. He is a young player, with a lot of potential, it is natural that given what has been his growth throughout this season and also a lot as a result of the performance he has had in the Champions League games, it is natural that he arouses the interest of the big European clubs.
“It will be at the end of this season or the following season, depending on what it has shown, it is natural that it will arouse interest from other clubs and naturally there may be the timing in which it goes. Now regarding numbers, I hope as a Benfica fan that it will go for numbers close to those that were João Félix's numbers. Now it's not for me to enter numbers on that field.
“In what is my day to day with the player, in what is given to us to observe in training and in the game, naturally we are here before a different player and all the different players arouse the interest of the big European clubs. Darwin is on that lot, obviously."
Ahead of a potential blockbuster transfer this summer, Nunez confirmed that he had left agent Edgardo Lasalvia, with the expectation he will join Jorge Mendes’s Gestifute stable of talent. "I want to clarify that I will not renew my contract with my representative Edgardo Lasalvia,” he wrote on social media earlier this week. “I also want to clarify that neither my family nor I have received any threats [to remain with Lasalvia] and we are fine."
