OTD: MILTON NUNEZ DEBUT

On this day in the year 2000, Milton 'Tyson' Nunez, one of Sunderland's most bizarre signings ever, made his debut for SAFC in a 2-1 win over Wimbledon.

Of course the signing was a disaster, but the game was actually decent for the Lads. We won 2-1, with goals coming from Quinny and Kevin Kilbane (Darren Holloway also scored an own goal).

If you were one of the lucky fans in attendance to see the diminutive striker on the pitch, it would have been a sight to remember. At 5'4, he was hilariously small and supporters were bemused when he came on against Wimbledon in the league and Luton in the League Cup.

Nunez was playing in Greece, and supposedly Peter Reid wanted to sign him after watching a few scouting videos. Back then the quality of video was extremely grainy, and it is rumoured that Reidy got the players mixed up and signed the wrong player.

Looking back at the transfer, Nunez said: “I asked the Sunderland coach, ‘and why did you bring me here? You saw a video of Eduardo Bennett but that was not me.’ And they were looking for Adolfo “The Train” Valencia. How did they compare him with me if he was a tall black [man]? I had him as a teammate, but I do not know what I was doing there.”

So Sunderland were watching videos of Adolfo Valencia, thinking it was Eduardo Bennett, and ended up signing Milton Nunez…

To be fair, Valencia was Nunez’ strike partner at PAOK - and Bennett was Nunez’ international teammate at Honduras. But it was still an utterly bizarre transfer story that will never be forgotten in SAFC folklore, for all the wrong reasons.

His nickname of ‘Tyson’ came when he was unveiled at half time at the SoL, making a mini lap of the pitch and performing a shadow-boxing routine.

Reid must have realised his mistake pretty quickly. Over Milton’s two-and-a-half year spell on Wearside, he played a total of just 15 minutes.

Nunez eventually returned to South America, where he would become a bit of a journeyman and only stopped playing football as recently as 2020! Only Peter Reid knows the real story behind the signing of ‘Tyson’, but the rumours surrounding the transfer are almost unbelievable. With the depth of scouting available in today’s age, surely this is a one-time mistake which could never happen again.