- Norwich City enjoyed success with Gabriel Sara and Marcelino Nunez.
- The Canaries have rarely utilised the South American market in recent years.
- Missed out on the chance to sign a star who now plays in the Premier League.
Norwich City explored a new market in the summer of 2022 after they were relegated from the Premier League under Dean Smith.
Gabriel Sara was brought in from Brazil and Marcelino Nunez was signed from Chile to bolster the English manager’s midfield options.
Both players excelled throughout their time at Carrow Road, with Sara now winning Super Lig titles with Galatasaray and Nunez operating as a rotation player for a Championship team in the 2025/26 season.
Norwich have rarely used the South American market
The Canaries have not signed a single player directly from South America for their first team since Sara and Nunez both arrived in 2022.
That does not mean that the club are not looking at the South American market or speaking to clubs and players about possible moves to Carrow Road, though.
It just means that the Canaries have not been able to find a deal that makes sense for them from a financial or footballing perspective in recent years.
Norwich also have to take homegrown rules and ESC slots into account, as it may not always be possible to bring in players if they have too many international players in the group and not enough ESC slots to use.
Norwich missed out on a Premier League level talent
Speaking to Brazilian channel Canal do Frossard, as relayed by the Pink Un, full-time scout Frederico Fortes revealed that he recommended Diego Gomez to Norwich.
He said: “I really liked Alysson, who went to Aston Villa, who was at Grêmio and plays on the right. At the time, he was a player I started conversations about at around €6 million, and they (Norwich) didn’t want to pay €6 million because he wasn’t playing much. Then he started playing and went to Aston Villa for €12 million.”
“Another player I told Norwich about at the time was Diego Gómez, but it didn’t work out; it wasn’t possible at that moment. In the end, he went to MLS, and now he is at Brighton & Hove Albion.”
Gomez joined Inter Miami from Libertad in Paraguay for a fee of £2.3m in the summer of 2023, but Fortes claims that the Canaries could not get a deal done before Miami pounced.
It is unclear if that was due to financial reasons or if they did not have an ESC slot to offer the central midfielder at the time.
Diego Gomez’s career since leaving South America
Gomez scored seven goals and provided seven assists in 40 games for Miami before his move to Brighton in January 2025, just 18 months after leaving South America.
The Premier League side paid an initial fee of £13m to add the Paraguay international to their squad in the 2024/25 campaign.
He has scored 11 goals in 54 matches for the Seagulls since his move to England, including four goals in one game against Barnsley.
The 23-year-old talent, who can play out wide or as a central midfielder, has started 25 games in the Premier League this season and scored five goals for Brighton.
Gomez’s impressive form in the top-flight since moving to England has also caused his market value to soar to £22m on Transfermarkt, £9m more than the £13m fee that Brighton paid for him at the start of 2025.
The Paraguay international now joins an illustrious list that includes the likes of Dean Windass, Toby Alderweireld, and Sebastien Haller in Norwich’s infamous transfer misses.
