Barcelona had hoped to sign Darwin Nunez for just €8m back in 2020, but their offer was blown out of the water by Benfica and they refused to up their bid.
At the time, Nunez was selling Almeria in the second division of Spain, scoring 16 goals in 30 games in the 2019/20 season.
According to ESPN, these shows were enough to get him interested in Barcelona as they are looking for a long-term replacement for Luis Suarez.
According to the report, former Barca sporting director Ramon Planes conspired to finance € 8m. Nunez would return to Almeria on loan earlier.
However, before they could sign the dotted line, Benfica sent a triple promise. Despite then-manager Ronald Koeman shedding light on the exchange of money, Barça were unwilling to comply with the request and the Uruguay international eventually signed the Portuguese giants.
After a promising first season in Portugal, Nunez broke the deadlock and scored 26 goals in just 28 games, leading their race to the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
This sparked a tug-of-war this summer with Liverpool winning the striker race by paying a club record fee of up to € 100m.
As Barcelona look for a new striker in the transfer window, they may be wondering what it was for Nunez – something Suarez has been craving recently.
“I told them: ‘Take care of Darwin. Look at him, he’s very good,” Suarez revealed.
“They told me he was in Almeria and very young, but instead of paying 100 million euros [now], at that time it would have been 20 million euros and, for example, he could have taken [my] place.”