Report: Newcastle eye 23-goal assassin who tormented Barcelona, Howe wants a 'top young striker'

Newcastle United are set to resume their pursuit of Benfica’s Darwin Nunez when the summer transfer window opens, according to Portuguese newspaper Record (via Sport Witness).

The report claims that the Magpies offered Benfica €50m (£41.9m) for Nunez in January, but to no avail.

The Lisbon club paid £21.6m to sign him from Spanish outfit Almeria in September 2020, committing him to a five-year contract.

Newcastle did manage to land one striker in January in the form of 30-year-old Chris Wood, but Eddie Howe also wanted a younger forward, hence the interest in 22-year-old Nunez and indeed 19-year-old Hugo Ekitike at Reims.

According to Record (via Sport Witness), Newcastle have apparently indicated that they would be willing to increase their offer to €60m (£50.2m) in the summer, an outlay which would comfortably make Nunez their record signing.

At present, the Magpies are ‘one of the most active’ parties in the race for his signature, but any move depends on Newcastle staying in the Premier League and on their ability to persuade him to come to Tyneside.

Benfica are hopeful that the Uruguayan’s stock further increases between now and the end of the season.

Nunez is enjoying a sensational season. In 27 appearances across all competitions, he has bagged 23 goals, remarkably averaging one every 76 minutes (via Transfermarkt). That figure becomes all the more impressive when you consider that he has only played 15 of those games as a centre-forward, racking up plenty of minutes as a second striker or left winger too.

He can still improve – ball retention and defensive contributions are listed as weaknesses by WhoScored – but he is a striker who can hurt opponents with his chance creation and dribbling in addition to his