Luis Suárez

Who is Luis Suárez?

Luis Suarez is a famous professional football player who currently plays for Football Club Barcelona in the men’s top Spanish football division LaLiga Santander, commonly known as LaLiga. He is one of the best players today and is also one of the best strikers of his generation. Luis Suárez has achieved tremendous success and earned himself a lot of name and fame. He has 18 professional career trophies playing various events. Suarez is also infamously known for biting incidents on the pitch, but regardless, he is one of the best forwards the game has ever had. He is given El Pistolero, meaning ‘The Gunfighter’ because of his charismatic and bold personality and his ability to score goals from unusual distances and angles with the supervision of assisting his teammates. His jersey number is 9.

Bio

Luis Suarez’s full name is Luis Alberto Suarez Díaz. He was born on 24 January 1987 to parents Rodolfo Suarez and Sandra Diaz in Salto, Uruguay. He was the fourth out of seven boys. Unfortunately, his parents split when he was just nine. One of his elder brothers, Paolo Suarez, is also a professional football player who used to play for Isidro Metapán, a Salvadoran football club based in El Salvador. Suarez had a tough childhood, spending most of it in poverty and also taking jobs of a sweeper when he was 15. Sadly, this later resulted in periodic aggression in the football field. He is currently 33 years old and has the zodiac sign of Aquarius.

Nationality and Physical Stats

Luis Suarez holds an Uruguayan nationality and is a Roman Catholic. He belongs to Uruguayan ethnicity. Besides this, he stands 6 feet (1.82m/182cm) tall and weighs around 81kgs (179lbs). He has a pair of brown-colored eyes with black hair color.

Early Life 

Luis Suarez had a very tough childhood, as he spent most of it in poverty. His father walked away when he was nine, leaving Suarez with his mother and a large family to feed. His mother encouraged him to play football by letting him play for a famous football club called Urreta in Montevideo. The streets in Montevideo is where Suarez used to sweep alongside starting to develop his football skills. Not much is known about his education, but he is known to have never been so bright in his education.

Later, he pursued a career in football when Wilson Perez spotted his potential while Suarez played for Urreta. As a teen, Suarez had a terrible company and used to drink. It was at the age of 15 when Suarez met his lifelong partner Sofia Balbi. According to Suarez, it was Sofia who helped him clear his head and made him realize how vital football was for him. He has also stated that Sofia helped him build a lot of confidence and belief in himself.

Career

Early career-2007

Luis Suarez started his football career at seven when he moved to Montevideo and played for a youth club Urreta FC. He was spotted by Wilson Pirez. Wilson saw potential in young Suarez and signed him with the Nacional youth team at 14.

Suarez made his debut with Nacional against Atlético Junior in the Copa Libertadores, an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since the 1960s. He started scoring goals from September 2005 and helped his team win the Uruguayan league in 2005-2006, scoring 10 goals with 27 appearances. During his time at Nacional, he became approached by scouts to buy him for a Dutch football club Groningen. He was transferred from Nacional to Groningen with a fee of €800,000.

At the age of 19, Suarez left Nacional to play for Groningen. During his initial days in the team, he struggled to communicate as he could not speak Dutch or English. He started putting his efforts into learning the language and was respected by his teammates for doing so. Suarez began to blast the ball into the net but was notoriously aggressive. He used to score goals alongside being booked for disciplinary issues. After helping his team secure the eighth position in the 2006-2007 season of Eredivisie, he gained a proposal by Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax or AFC Ajax, with a fee of €3.5 million. Suarez became upset when Groningen declined the offer. However, again Ajax offered €7.5 million for Suarez, which Groningen finally provided.

2007-Present

In the 2007-2008 season, Suarez signed a five-year contract with Ajax. He scored a goal in his debut match for the team and helped Ajax finish in the second position. He scored 17 goals in 33 games and blended well with his teammate and league top scorer Klass-Jan Huntelaar. Suarez achieved his breakthrough moment when he ended the 2009-2010 season of Eredivisie as the top scorer of the league with 35 goals in 33 matches. He gained praise for his performance and named the Ajax Player of the Year.

In a surprising turn of events, he bit PSV’s Otman Bakkal while fighting for the ball. For this notorious event, he became suspended for two matches and was also fined an undisclosed amount. Also, he gained the title as ‘Cannibal of Ajax’ by a Dutch daily, ‘De Telegraaf’. Suarez later uploaded a video apologizing for the misdemeanor.

During his suspension, the Premier League giants Liverpool offered him a contract of €26.5 million. He left Ajax on good terms while still on suspension and started his career in the English Premier League as the most expensive transfer after Andy Carroll (€35 million). He signed a five-and-a-half-year contract with Liverpool on 31 January 2011. Luis Suarez, while playing for Liverpool, managed to nominate himself for the PFA Players’ Player of the Year. Also, he became the second top goal scorer of Liverpool and in the English Premier League in the 2012-2013 season with 23 goals. Also, he became Liverpool’s Player of the season in May 2013.

More

In another surprising event, Suarez had his second biting incident, this time involving a Chelsea man Branislav Ivanovic. This led to him facing a series of problems starting with Ivanovic rejecting his apology and FA deciding a stiff penalty on the player with an undisposed fine. Even after facing harsh penalties, Suarez fought his way to the top when he became declared Player of the Year in 2013-2014. He scored twice and assisted once in the stunning 5-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur. Following his brilliance, he managed to secure the top position in Europe’s Most Influential Player of the year.

On 11 July 2014, Suarez signed a five-year contract with Spanish giants Barcelona for a whopping €82.3 million making him one of the most expensive players in the world of football. Since Suarez saw Gabriel Batistuta, Argentina number 9 as his idol, Barcelona made sure that Suarez wore the number 9 jersey. Suarez’s third biting incident became infamous when he bit Giorgio Chiellini in the 2014 FIFA World Cup. He missed training and participation with Barcelona during the first season as a punishment for the incident.

Suarez made his competitive debut alongside teammates Lionel Messi and Neymar in the El Clasico match against Real Madrid but unfortunately lost the game. He ended his first season with Barcelona with an impressive record of 25 goals and 20 assists. Also, he partnered with Messi and Neymar forming a dominant attacking trio named ‘MSN’ after their initials. This trio absolutely dominated the league and managed to score a total of 122 goals, the most goals ever scored in a season by an attacking trio in the Spanish football history. The Italian football giants Juventus have shown interest in the Uruguayan, and Suarez has also agreed in advanced talks.

Achievements

Luis Suarez is known to be one of the gems of the modern football generation. He is a two-time Golden Boot Award winner. Also, he has a record of being the only player to win a Golden Boot with a Pichihci Trophy in the same year since 2009. He also has numerous Best Player awards to his name playing for significant teams in UEFA Champions League, LaLiga, and Eredivisie.

Personal Life 

Luis Suarez has been together with Sofia Balbi since 15 and finally got married to her in 2009. This loving couple has a daughter Delfina Suarez in 2010, son Benjamin Suarez in 2013, and another son Lautaro Suarez in 2018.

Social

Luis Suarez is active on Instagram (@luissuarez9), with 38.2 million followers, and Twitter (@LuisSuarez9) with 16.2 million followers. He also has a verified Facebook page (@LuisSuarez9) with 18.1 million likes and 18.4 million followers. He has also launched a football complex ‘Complejo Suarez’ (complejosuarez.com) in Uruguay, which boasts indoor FIFA approved football pitches and outdoor barbeques.

Net Worth

Luis Suarez has struggled a lot during his childhood days and worked tirelessly to be recognized as one of the best footballers in the world today. He has certainly earned a tremendous amount of name and fame along with a handsome amount of money. As of 2020, Luis Suarez is worth $40 million.