If the transfer of Darwin Núñez a year and a half ago had overtones of a ‘soap opera’, the sale of Umar Sadiq will be no less. With a termination clause of 60 million euros (80 in the event of promotion to the First Division) Almería valued him at 30 kilos last summer. The fact that no offer arrived that would satisfy the Almeria entity caused the Nigerian, already a permanent fixture in his team, to continue with the red and white shirt. But they keep dating him ‘girlfriends’; the last one, a Benfica that looks for in Sadiq the substitute for Darwin Núñez in the event that the charrúa ends up leaving Lisbon, as pointed out All Web Marketindicating that he is the most liked striker at the Estadio da Luz for next season.
Other of the clubs that is speaking with the representative of the Nigerian is Villarreal, according to sources close to the rojiblanco club. The yellow entity already asked about the Almería striker during the past summer and now they have returned to be interested in his services. It is not the only Spanish club, with Valencia and Sevilla also on the prowl for the main weapon of Rubi’s team in the face of promotion. That yes, from the first moment in the offices of the Vega de Acá they have been clear that they are not going to rush with any transfer of their main assets, especially since they have these long contracts (until 2025 in the case of the African).
Sadiq had the difficult role of replacing Darwin Núñez, who scored 16 goals for Almería in the 19-20 season. The Nigerian more than complied, reaching the 20th league mark last season, a figure to which must be added his two goals in the Cup and six at the start of the season with the Partizán shirt, a club that will receive 20% of the surplus value in a future sale. In this way, the UDA will have to pay the Serbs half a million euros in a few weeks when the striker reaches 75 official matches with the Almeria elastic (he has 73), the same figure he paid in his day after reaching 25 goals.
The performance of his first year at the Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos has had continuity this season, fighting for the top scorer after scoring a fortnight of goals (he scored another in the Cup). Its importance is not limited to figuresbeing a key player in Rubi’s schemes for his role in creating the game (he has seven goal assists), offloading the second line of attack and creating spaces for it, as well as making his teammates better.
Darwin Núñez will continue to give benefits to Almería
The good performance of Darwin Núñez during the last two seasons at Benfica will bring short-term economic benefits to the red and white coffers. Almería transferred the Uruguayan striker in September for 24 million euros, reserving 20% of the capital gain in a future transfer made by the Lisbon club. Despite having a contract with Benfica until 2025, everything indicates that the striker will make a leap in quality in the next market, thus seeing the red and white coffers strengthened. The striker has broken off relations with ex-barra brava Edgardo Lasalvia, as the footballer himself has acknowledged on his social media accounts, where he has denied that his family has been threatened over this matter, as the newspaper ‘Record’ pointed out. In recent days he has been linked to Jorge Mendes.