Fabrizio Romano: Liverpool beat Real Madrid to sign £85million sensation due to "passport" issues

With Darwin Nunez having a true breakout season for Benfica last year, his goals attracted a lot of attention from Europe’s elite.

Whilst an £85m fee was enough to seal the deal, they had faced stiff competition from Real Madrid and Manchester United.

Madrid may have edged out the Reds in the Champions League final and won the race to sign Aurelien Tchouameni but Liverpool secured the services of one of the best young strikers in the world.

Madrid Interest

Real Madrid usually get their transfer targets, however, Nunez opted for England over Spain.

Whilst most of the talk was about Nunez to United or Liverpool, the Spanish champions found themselves missing out due to the logistics of the deal.

“It was not easy guys. Why? Because I want to reveal to you that Real Madrid were really interested after missing out on the Kylian Mbappe deal,” Romano said.

“One of the strikers wanted by Real Madrid was Darwin Nunez, but it was not possible from a passport point of view, because Darwin has no European passport.

“And with Real Madrid it would not be possible to register Darwin Nunez if they found an agreement with Benfica, so it was impossible to complete that negotiation.”

With Madrid beating Liverpool to the Champions League and the signing of former Monaco midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni, it would have added insult to injury if Nunez could have signed for Los Blancos.

Last season's performance

The former Benfica forward burst onto the scene in a big way last season, scoring 34 goals and providing 4 assists in all competitions.

That includes six goals in 10 Champions League games, including a goal home and away against the Reds.

Not forgetting two goals against Barcelona and a tie-winning header away at the Amsterdam Arena against Ajax in the round of 16.

He also managed two hattricks throughout the season and has joined up with the squad ahead of pre-season starting next week.