Following Luis Diaz’s explosive start to life at Liverpool, Reds bosses will be patting themselves on the back at the success of the £49m Colombian. The club had originally planned to move for the winger this summer but, following interest from Tottenham Hotspur, were forced to move early to secure his signature.
Yet to even speak English, the 25-year-old exceeded all expectations during his first half-season at Anfield as his arrival gave Liverpool a timely shot in the arm in their ultimately failed pursuit of an unprecedented quadruple. Yet, registering six goals and five assists from 26 appearances, he still won both domestic cups and helped the Reds reach the Champions League final.
“He made a real impact, in any squad in the world there’s enough room for a world class player,” Jurgen Klopp told reporters when praising the winger last month. “That’s what Luis is, that’s why we were so desperate to get him and happy to get him. He makes all the difference.”
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Netting double figures in his first two seasons with Porto, Diaz was widely-regarded as the best player in Portugal prior to his move to Anfield, with him returning 14 goals and five assists from just 18 league matches during his final six months with the club. Yet such form seemingly hadn’t earned him elite interest with Cardiff City and Everton previously coming close to signing him before Liverpool snapped him up from under Tottenham’s noses.
After signing the winger, Klopp paid tribute to Reds assistant manager Pep Lijnders and elite development coach Vitor Matos, who had both previously worked at Porto, with the latter having been at the club when Diaz was signed from Colombian side Junior de Barranquilla, for first alerting Liverpool to the Colombia international and helping engineer the switch to Anfield.
"We cannot watch all interesting players closely, me or the coaches; our scouts are doing that and that's what we have the department for," the German said. "Very often we just get a hint that we should have a closer look at him or him and we do that.
"That doesn't mean he's a player for us in the next transfer window but with Porto obviously it is different because of Pep and Vitor (Matos).
"I'm not sure but Vitor probably watches all Porto games and Pep a lot of them, and they were very early and told me, 'That's a very interesting boy there and we should have a closer look'. Since then we are watching him.
"It is part of the process. We cannot constantly watch the whole world but the club is pretty busy with that. If there's a good player or a real talent out there, we know him.
"We just have to make decisions on whether it is interesting for us or not, do we have somebody in that position or not, do we have someone coming up in that position, do we have a young player to follow on? All these kind of things. That's the process."
In stark contrast to the days when the likes of Geoff Twentyman and Tom Saunders would scour the UK for talent first-hand before altering Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan, it is normal for initial scouting to be done virtually these days. But Lijnders and Matos’ links to Porto and Portugal both aided Liverpool when it came to moving for Diaz.
Indeed, it was a similar story 18 months earlier when the Reds signed Diogo Jota from Wolves. When the Reds were deliberating over a three-man attacking shortlist in the summer of 2020, it was Lijnders who spoke to trusted allies at Porto for a glowing reference on the forward, who eventually fought off competition from Ismaila Sarr and Jonathan David to join the club in a £45m deal.
Liverpool's number two spent eight years at Porto in his formative days as a coach and spoke to several at the biggest club in Portugal about Jota as interest started to gather pace behind the scenes.
"Through his contacts back in Portuguese football, Pep was given glowing references on the player's character and he believes [Jota] can become a difference maker within our framework over time," said one source at the time.
Portugal has certainly proven to be a growing market in recent years following the success of Cristinao Ronaldo, with the likes of Ederson, Jan Oblak, Bernardo Silva, Joao Felix, Joao Cancelo, Ruben Dias, Eder Militao and Bruno Fernandes moving on to flourish in major European leagues.
And one player who looks poised to move on from a big-money fee this summer could be the latest successful export from Portugal. Scoring twice against the Reds in the Champions League quarter-finals back in April, while also having two goals disallowed by VAR, Darwin Nunez caught Liverpool eyes with two impressive displays and has been linked with a switch to Merseyside ever since as a result.
Netting six goals in 10 Champions League matches this season, the 22-year-old was the leading goalscorer in the Portuguese Premeira Liga with 26 goals from 38 appearances and scored 34 goals in all competitions over the season. Such form has inevitably attracted the interest of a number of top clubs, including Liverpool.
The ECHO understands Nunez is one of several possible targets the Reds are keeping tabs on this summer, as a replacement for Sadio Mane edges closer to becoming essential. Bayern Munich's first bid for the no.10 was swiftly rejected - but the German giants are expected to come back to the table with improved terms.
Given Lijnders and Matos’ ties to Portugal, the duo are likely to have given the Reds the advanced nod on his talents even before they locked horns with Benfica. Whether that leads to a bid for the services of Nunez remains to be seen. He fits the profile of the player Liverpool are after as they look to drive down the average age of their forward line - but business will only be done at the right price.
Either way, it ensures Liverpool are better-placed than most to judge Nunez’s talents from outside of Portugal. And even if the Reds don’t move for the Uruguayan, he looks certain to follow Diaz’s example by trying his hand at a higher level regardless.
*A version of this article was originally published earlier in June 2022.
