(originally published on the 25th February 2016)
I remember it as if it were yesterday. I was at a Ghanaian bar in south London, watching the Black Stars (Ghanaian National Football Team) playing tremendous football during the first World Cup in history to be hosted by an African country. Then it happened. The last minute of extra time Dominic Adiyiah strikes the ball clean and true. He would have become an African hero as a result as that goal would have put Ghana into the semi-final for the first time in its history in the first world cup in Africa. But a man called Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz had a different idea. He launched himself desperately to prevent the ball from going over the line. This would have been okay if he didn’t use his hands to do this; which is something that goes against fair play just a tad. Suarez was rightfully given his marching orders and was clearly distraught as he believed his country were going to be eliminated from the World Cup. Asamoah Gyan stepped up to take the penalty. Asamoah Gyan misses the target terribly. After that moment everything happened so quickly. Within 3 minutes of that miss; Ghana were out of the World Cup. As I sat dejected in the bar one image still remains etched in my memory. Suarez celebrating wildly as he realised Gyan missed the spot kick. In an instant all the good memories from the World Cup were erased. All I could see was Suarez taking so much joy in cheating an African nation rightfully taking part in a history making game against the Netherlands.
It is fair to say that from that moment onwards; Suarez was public enemy number one. I hated his guts. I must say I enjoyed hating him and still do to a certain extent. But this hatred is very slowly fading away due to one reason. He has genuinely blossomed into a world class player and is one of the players today that remind me why I fell in love with the beautiful game in the first place.
When he arrived on Merseyside from Ajax in January 2011 this was what he had to say about his move: “My aim is to work, to show the fans how hard I am ready to work. I want to put in lots of effort, to show people my capabilities… My ambitions for the future are to do my very best for Liverpool, to try to learn more about English football and to become a champion.” This quote echoed so loudly during his spell at Liverpool. In his first season in England Suarez achieved a decent enough goal-game ratio. With 17 goals in 39 competitive games he clearly showed that he has the capabilities to compete in the Premier League; especially when South American imports are known to struggle to adapt to the demands of top flight English football. His tenacity and work rate were there for all to see; as well has his technique and innate aggressive attacking nature. His first goal for Liverpool against Stoke on his home debut gave everyone a glimpse of what he is capable of. Kuyt put him through and he latched onto the pass with purpose. He then rounded Begovic with brilliant composure and put the ball in the back of the net.
However the hatred I had for him was firmly justified once again in a terrible incident against Manchester United at Anfield; where he allegedly racially abuse Patrice Evra more than once in the space of a couple of minutes. He was rightfully banned for eight matches as a result. All things considered, this incident should not have come as a surprise. His disciplinary record is far from perfect. He was banned in the Eredivisie for seven games in 2010 for BITING an opponent. Again this probably could be overlooked by your die-hard scouser or Uruguayan patriot but for the objective observer; he was justifiably labelled a nasty piece of work. To round up this paragraph about his discipline problems; in 2013 he pretty much tried to take a chunk of flesh out of Branislav Ivanovic with (you guessed it) his teeth and was banned for 10 games as a result. Third time was definitely a charm though. In 2014 Suarez BITES Giorgio Chiellini during a world cup game. Luis Suárez was suspended for nine matches and banned for four months from ANY football-related activity for his behaviour.
Following the ban served for the second bite of his career in 2013; every football fan began to witness the makings of a brilliant striker.
LFChistory.net summed up his record breaking season brilliantly: “After missing the opening 5 Premier League matches he played in the remaining 33 and scored an astonishing 31 goals, a total that included hat-tricks against West Bromwich Albion and Cardiff City and four against Norwich at Anfield.” Like that wasn’t enough he became the first premier league player to score 10 goals in a single month (December 2013); the first and only player to reach 20 premier league goals in just 15 games and the 3rd play to equal the record of most goals in a 38-game league season with 31. This was arguably more impressive than Alan Shearer and Cristiano Ronaldo reaching that milestone due to the fact that he missed the first five games of the season.
Despite all these records being broken and almost taking Liverpool to their first league trophy of the Premier League era; the reason he won so many admirers despite his previous misdemeanours was due to his playing style. He is not only blessed with fantastic technique and brilliant vision; he has a unique level of tenacity and desire to attack and press the opposition consistently throughout 90 minutes of every game. This type of tenacity is expected from players with an average level of ability who use this to compensate for poor technique. But for a player of his calibre to possess desire to press so persistently made him an absolute nightmare to play against. Vincent Kompany after a 2-1 victory against Liverpool in 2013 said that ‘…playing against players like Suarez is what I live for in football. If I could play against him every week I would love to do so.’ I think he may have changed that opinion slightly following Suarez performance for Barcelona against them at the Eithad Stadium in the Champions League two years later; where he scored two brilliant goals. He went on to score many crucial goals in his debut season in Catalonia, most important arguably being his goal for Barcelona in the 2015 Champions League final against a very good Juventus side.
Not surprisingly Suarez has taken his game to another level this season. In 24 La Liga appearances he has so far scored 25 goals and recorded 10 assists. Interesting to highlight is the marked improvement in his discipline. He has only received 3 yellow cards this season and is yet to be sent off. His currently on 35 goals in all competitions this season but again is still proving how much of a team player he is at a club like Barcelona. 21 of his 25 league goals have come from collective play and he has recovered 41 balls so far this season. On current form it will be a travesty to overlook him for the Ballon d’Or at the end of 2016. He is without a doubt as important to this current Barcelona side as both Messi and Neymar.
Luis Suarez has been called a lot of things during his football career. Not all of it has been complementary. But love him or hate him; everyone can agree on one thing about this controversial Uruguayan. He is one of the best strikers in the world of football today.
Fourfiveone 
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