Núñez on Al-Hilal: I wouldn't wish my experience on anyone!
First comment from the loaned striker of the club
Darwin Nunez has opened up about the difficult period he endured at Al-Hilal, having rediscovered his form in Al-Diriyah colours with two goals against Al-Ittifaq on Saturday evening. The fourth round of the Roshn League carried special significance for the Uruguayan striker after long months without regular football.
Nunez arrived at Al-Hilal during the summer transfer window in 2025 amid huge expectations that he would become one of the team's sharpest attacking weapons. He never nailed down a starting spot. His appearances dwindled, he drifted out of the first-team plans, and roughly six months after joining "the Leader" he found himself sidelined and shifted to the Asian list.
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The new season only pushed Nunez further from Italian coach Simone Inzaghi's plans. He left Al-Hilal on loan to Al-Diriyah in a bid to revive his career and earn a genuine chance to play, and that fresh start arrived against Al-Ittifaq with two superb goals.
Speaking to Saudi Arabia's "Thmanyah" network afterwards, Nunez laid bare the suffering of recent months. Simply being back on the pitch, he said, mattered more than the two goals, because it handed him back a feeling he had missed for so long.
The Uruguayan striker said: "First, I am very happy with my return to football. The past six months at Al-Hilal were very difficult for me and for my family, because I was unable to play matches."
He added: "And honestly, I do not wish for anyone to go through an experience like mine, because in the end all of us as players want to compete, to play, and to enjoy what we do," a clear nod to the psychological and technical toll of his absence.
His words show a crisis that reached well beyond the matchday squad. It touched his family and his life off the pitch, leaving a player who arrived carrying a big name and huge expectations stranded far from competition.
That difficult phase is now behind him, the Uruguayan insisted. He is focusing on the present and refusing to view the past months as the end of his career, treating them instead as a painful experience he has come through.
He concluded: "Now I have moved past that difficult period. I thank my family because they stood by my side and did not allow me to fall during that difficult time, but I always say: after the storm, the sun will rise."
