Darwin Núñez's Loan to Trabzonspor Hijacked by Al Diriyah

Darwin Núñez’s Turkish reunion with Mohamed Salah has been thrown off course at the last moment, with Saudi side Al Diriyah moving to hijack his proposed loan to Trabzonspor.

For days, the script looked straightforward. Núñez, left out of Al Hilal’s squad on the final day of their training camp in Austria, was expected to fly to Turkiye and seal a temporary switch to Trabzonspor. A fresh start, a familiar face, and a league suddenly obsessed with star power.

Then the plot twisted.

Al Diriyah, another Saudi Pro League club, stepped in and opened talks with Al Hilal, tabling a proposal to take the Uruguayan on loan themselves. That intervention now looks likely to redirect Núñez’s immediate future back within Saudi Arabia rather than towards the Black Sea coast.

It would end, before it even began, the prospect of Núñez linking up again with Salah, the former Liverpool teammate who has already lit up Trabzonspor off the pitch. When the Egyptian forward was unveiled, he was greeted like a national hero, instantly becoming the highest-paid player in Turkiye and the new face of the club’s ambition.

Salah has already pulled on the shirt, coming off the bench in a 1-1 draw with Kasimpasa last weekend. Around him, Trabzonspor have quietly built a spine full of familiar names: former Southampton striker Paul Onuachu and ex-Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana among them. Núñez would have added a different edge — raw, direct, chaotic at times, but always dangerous.

Instead, Al Hilal’s record of high-profile ins and outs looks set to continue with another intra-league move, just a year after Núñez left Liverpool for around $62 million (£46 million), three years on from his big-money arrival at Anfield from Benfica.

Liverpool, meanwhile, are still dealing with the aftershocks of that departure. They moved aggressively last summer, bringing in Alexander Isak for around $169 million (£125 million) and adding Hugo Ekitike as another long-term option through the middle. On paper, the forward line looked stacked. On the pitch, it has yet to fully click.

Isak, brilliant in flashes, now faces the weight of expectation as the clear first-choice No. 9. Ekitike’s injury has complicated everything, ruling him out for several more months and leaving the Swede as the only fully fit central striker.

That imbalance has not gone unnoticed. European football analyst Julian Laurens underlined the concern this week, pointing out that Liverpool could be left dangerously light if Cody Gakpo also moves on.

“I still think that until Ekitike comes back from injury — it’s a long one, we’re not sure exactly when it will be — they probably need a back-up to Isak, especially if Cody Gakpo goes,” Laurens said. “You’re only left really with Isak as your nine.”

The tactical juggling act is obvious. Laurens floated internal solutions: Federico Chiesa, Dominik Szoboszlai or Curtis Jones all operating as a false nine if required. It’s creative, but it’s also a compromise.

“But I still think they would need a backup striker there until Ekitike comes back,” he added. “It could be a loan, it could be like the Ronald Araujo deal they did for the defense.”

The questions do not stop in attack. Laurens also highlighted a midfield that, in his view, does not yet fit the demands of Andoni Iraola, whose approach differs sharply from that of Arne Slot. Pressing angles, intensity, verticality — all of it requires specific profiles. Right now, he suggested, the current options might not be the perfect match.

So Núñez, once seen as a long-term solution at Anfield and briefly tipped for a reunion with Salah in Turkiye, now stands on the brink of another twist in a career already defined by sharp turns.

If Al Diriyah complete their move, Liverpool will watch from afar, still searching for the right balance up front while one of their great what-ifs tries to relaunch himself somewhere else in the Saudi Pro League.