A friendly in name, anything but casual in significance. When Algeria face Uruguay tonight in Turin, the match will double as a live scouting mission for Juventus, with Darwin Núñez firmly under the microscope.
The Uruguayan striker, born in 1999 and once the spearhead of Benfica’s attack before his high-profile move to Liverpool, is now at the centre of another intriguing chapter. Al-Hilal paid €53 million to bring him to Saudi Arabia last summer, a statement signing meant to anchor their forward line.
It has been a mixed return. Núñez has scored 9 goals in 24 appearances for the Saudi club, flashes of the explosive forward who once terrorised defences in Europe, but not enough to cement his status as untouchable. The consequences have been brutal. Al-Hilal have dropped him from the squad to open space for 38-year-old Karim Benzema, who arrived on a free transfer from Al-Ittihad in the last winter window.
That decision has not gone unnoticed in Turin.
At Continassa yesterday, there was another piece of the puzzle. According to Tuttosport, Tommaso Inzaghi – right-hand man to prominent agent Federico Pastorello and son of Simone Inzaghi – visited Juventus’ training ground. The visit adds an extra layer of intrigue to a night when Núñez will be performing just a short drive away, in a stadium where his every run, touch and finish will be weighed with a different intensity.
For Juventus, this is an opportunity wrapped in 90 minutes of international football: a chance to see, up close, whether the unsettled Al-Hilal forward is still the ruthless, vertical threat who once looked built for Europe’s biggest stages – and perhaps for a new one in black and white.
