Darwin Núñez's Rapid Decline at Al Hilal

Darwin Núñez’s Saudi gamble is over almost before it began.

Barely a year after swapping Anfield for Riyadh in a €53 million move, the Uruguayan forward is on the verge of leaving Al Hilal on a free transfer. A player once wrapped in an £85m package by Liverpool, now effectively written off. And already, the Premier League is circling again, with Newcastle United and Chelsea tracking developments.

The question hangs over it all: how did it unravel this quickly?

From marquee move to expendable asset

Al Hilal did not sign Núñez to make up the numbers. He arrived with the weight of a huge Liverpool fee still attached to his name and the expectation that he would spearhead a new-look attack in the Saudi Pro League.

The output, on paper, was respectable rather than spectacular. In 22 appearances, Núñez produced nine goals and five assists. Decent returns, but not the sort that silence doubters or anchor a project.

Then came the turning point: Karim Benzema.

The Frenchman’s move to Al Hilal in the winter window changed everything. The Saudi Pro League’s strict foreign-player rule – a maximum of 10 overseas players per squad, with only eight allowed to be over 20 and two slots reserved for under-20s – forced tough calls. Someone had to give way.

Al Hilal chose Núñez.

His playing registration for the league was pulled to make room for Benzema. It was a brutal, clear statement of hierarchy. Benzema arrived in early February and immediately matched Núñez’s nine goals and five assists, doing it in 10 fewer matches. The contrast was impossible to ignore.

The pressure finally told. In a squad suddenly overloaded with star power and constrained by regulation, Núñez became the expendable one.

World Cup clock ticking

For Núñez, the timing could hardly be worse.

The World Cup looms this summer, and the 26-year-old has not played a competitive club game since 16 February. Match sharpness is draining away at precisely the moment he needs it most.

His last significant contribution for Al Hilal came in the group stage of the AFC Champions League, where he scored twice in the final game before the knockout rounds. Even that wasn’t enough to save his place. When Al Hilal reached the round of 16 in April, he was left out of the squad entirely as the foreign-player squeeze tightened.

The omission sent a clear message back to Uruguay. A forward who once looked like a guaranteed starter for his country suddenly finds his role under threat.

He did at least feature in the March friendlies, coming off the bench late on against both England and Algeria. Those cameos, modest as they were, should help keep him in the national-team picture and likely earn him a spot in the World Cup squad. But from potential leading man to hopeful inclusion, the shift has been stark.

Premier League lifeline?

Now comes the reset.

With Al Hilal ready to let him walk for nothing, Núñez is an unusually high-profile free agent. Newcastle United and Chelsea are monitoring the situation, aware that a player of his age, profile and experience rarely becomes available without a fee.

For the clubs, it is a calculated opportunity. For Núñez, it is something else entirely: a chance to salvage momentum in a career that has veered off course in less than a year.

He left Liverpool carrying the burden of a huge price tag. He may return to England with no transfer fee at all, but with something far more valuable at stake — his place on football’s biggest stage this summer.