A prolific, top-notch goal scorer with an outstanding record and the bosom buddy of Lionel Messi both on and off the pitch. An outspoken person with a flair for being direct to the point of being blunt often (as is evidenced in the case of his altercation with patrice evra of man united when suarez was with liverpool in the earlier years!) That’s Uruguayan football-scoring machine, Luis Suarez.
Yet little is known about his background. So, here goes a bit of the unraveling.
- HE COMES FROM A FOOTBALL FAMILY
The immensely popular, and unquestionably talented, Barcelona striker striker hails from a big footballing family and is the fourth of seven brothers, many of whom have also played professional football in Uruguay and across Latin America. Among these siblings are Paolo, Maximiliano and Diego. Luis, or more popularly known as ‘El Pistolero’ – ‘the gunfighter,’ in English – is by the far the most successful of them all as a smoking gun on the pitch!
- HE FOLLOWED HIS CHILDHOOD SWEETHEART TO BARCELONA
Luis and his wife Sofía were childhood lovers since their teens. Her family left Uruguay for new begiinings in Barcelona when they were both young, which brought down the curtains on their budding romance for quite a long period.
With the relationship put on hold, Suarez knuckled down and focused on his career, keeping himself buoyed up with the hope that his talents could one day take him to Europe and then, if hopefully, to Barcelona. And that’s exactly what happened, via a budding career that took him through Groningen, Ajax, Liverpool – and ultimately ending up in Barcelona.
“Playing and living in Spain, where my wife’s family live, has been a lifelong dream and ambition,” said Luis after joining the Blaugrana in 2014.
- HE HAS A DECADES-LONG RELATIONSHIP WITH EDINSON CAVANI
Suarez and Edinson Cavani have been at the forefront leading Uruguay’s attack for several years, and their personal connection goes back decades.
Both strikers hail from the small, remote city of Salto, with a population of approximately 100,000, and were born just 21 days apart in 1987. And guess what? They grew up within just six blocks of each other.
- HE’S A TWO-TIME EUROPEAN GOLDEN SHOE WINNER
Luis Suarez’s goal-scoring prowess comes with the impressive record of having won the award for being Europe’s leading goalscorer, twice: first in 2013/14 while at Liverpool, then again in 2015/16 at Barcelona.
Suarez also goes on record for being also the only man not named Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo to have won the Pichichi award for La Liga’s top scorer in the past decade.
- HE’S SCORED 10 LA LIGA HAT-TRICKS
Luis is also one of only 12 players in history to have attained double figures in top-tier La Liga hat-tricks. Although having arrived just six years ago, he has since quickly racked up 10 three-goal hauls, scoring his first against Cordoba FC in 2014/15, with his most recent arriving on the biggest stage of them all – against Real Madrid in Barcelona’s 5-1 El Clasico victory back in October 2018.
There you have now have it all, the stirling achievements of one of the most prolific goal-scorers in football. And his goal-scoring days are certainly not over yet, not by a long mile.