He has become the most expensive signing in Liverpool's history but as a 17-year-old prodigy in Uruguay Darwin Nunez almost quit football after he struggled to come back from a serious knee injury.
As he pulls on the red shirt for the first time he'll spare a thought for former Uruguayan international and Penarol youth team coach Jose Perdomo who discovered him and later helped convince him to keep going.
And to former Uruguay U20 coach Fabian Coito who kept picking him for the national youth side when others, including Darwin himself, had doubts.
Nunez's form at Benfica has been recognised with a £75million summer switch to Liverpool
'I called him the other day and said: "you have forgotten about the old man!