10 Facts About Luis Suárez
- Luis Alberto Suárez Dáz is his full name.
- He’s a Roman Catholic Christian.
- Luis Suárez’s brother played professional football before retiring.
- He began football at 15 in Montevideo, Uruguay.
- He scored 25 goals and had 20 assists in his first season with Barcelona.
- He has African, Spanish, and Uruguayan ancestry.
- Luis Suárez married Sofia Balbi in 2009; they have three kids.
- He has three kids: Delfina, Benjamin, and Lauti.
- Luis Suárez has won two European golden shoes, an Eredivisie golden boot, a Premier League golden boot, and three Pichichi trophies.
- Luis Suárez is currently worth about $70 million.
Who is Luis Suárez?
It’s worth noting that Luis Suárez’s entire name, Luis Alberto Suárez Dáz, is an example of an American Spanish name. He was the fourth of seven sons to be born to Sandra Dáz and Rodolfo Suárez, and he was born on January 24th, 1987 in Salto, Uruguay. He was the middle child of the seven boys.
Luis Suárez’s Childhood
Luis Suárez has an elder brother who, like him, played professional football but has since retired from the sport. Luis Suárez is the fourth of seven boys in his family.
When Luis Suárez was seven years old, he relocated to Montevideo with his family. Three years later, when he was nine years old, his parents divorced. Beginning when he was 15 years old, he worked various occupations, including that of a street sweeper. Luis Suárez is trilingual, speaking not only Spanish but also English and Dutch in addition to his mother tongue.
Luis Suárez is a person of mixed race because it has been determined that his grandfather was black. Luis Suárez first played for the Nacional’s young squad when he was 14 years old. Luis Suárez gave a referee a headbutt when he was only 16 years old, after the official had shown him a red card for his protests. He signed with Groningen when he was 19 years old.
Luis Suárez spent his formative years in the Cerro district of Salto, which he left behind when he was seven years old to relocate to Montevideo with his parents and six brothers. The fifth metatarsal bone in his foot was fractured as a result of an accident when he was a toddler in which a car ran over his foot.
Luis Suárez’s Career
Luis Suárez began playing football in Montevideo, Uruguay, when he was 15 years old. He honed his skills by playing the game on the street in Montevideo. Luis Suárez got his start in football at Sportivo Artigas when he was a youngster. Following the move to Montevideo that he made with his parents, he spent the most of his youth football at Uretta. He continued to play despite the damage that he sustained when his foot was run over by a car earlier in the game.
At the age of 14, Luis Suárez was recruited to play for the youth squad of the local club Nacional. In the Copa Libertadores match against Atlético Junior that took place in May 2005, Luiz Suárez made his first team debut at the age of 18 years old. He was an integral part of the Nacional team that won the Uruguayan league in 2005 and 2006. In September of 2005, Luis Suárez scored his first ever goal, aiding the Nacional to win with 10 goals in 27 matches. Luis Suárez contributed to the Nacional’s success with his goals.
Having been discovered by a group of scouts from the Dutch team who were searching for another player in Uruguay, he was signed by the Dutch club shortly after his discovery. They watched as Luis Suárez gained a penalty and then successfully converted it, scoring a miraculous goal against the team that was defending it. Following their viewing of that match, they insisted that we purchase Luis Suárez. At the conclusion of the season, Groningen purchased him for a total price of 800,000 euros.
Following his signing with Groningen in 2005 at the age of 19, he had just turned 19. It was difficult for him to adjust at first since he was having trouble communicating because he could not speak Dutch or English. In addition, he had to play on the second team so that he could become familiar with the Dutch game. Bruno Silva, another member of his team who is originally from Uruguay, was of tremendous assistance to him as he adjusted to life in the Netherlands and began playing for a new team. Luis Suárez was a goal scorer, but he also had disciplinary problems throughout his career. In one particular span of five games in January 2007, he not only scored four goals but also received three yellow cards and one red card.
In Luis Suárez’s home victory over Vitesse, which ended 4-3, he not only made his imprint but also won a penalty and scored two goals in the final ten minutes of play. Luis Suárez concluded the 2006–2007 Eredivisie season with a total of 10 goals for Groningen in 29 league appearances, which contributed to Groningen’s position of eighth place.
As a result of this, Ajax recognized the potential that Luis Suárez possessed and made an offer to Groningen of €3.5 million for Luis Suárez; however, Groningen did not accept this offer. Luis Suárez became enraged when the offer was turned down, and he took the matter to the Royal Dutch Football Association in the hopes that they would take action to help him sell his player. The day that the Arbitration committee ruled against him, which was on the 9th of August 2007, was the same day that Ajax increased their pledge to €7.5 million, and Groningen accepted the offer as a result of this.
Luis Suárez was given a transfer fee of €7.5 million and agreed to a five-year deal with Ajax on the 9th of August, 2009, when he signed a contract with the Dutch club. In the match that counted toward qualification for the UEFA Champions League, he made his first appearance for his club. In addition to scoring one goal in his first game in the Eredivisie for the club, he scored two goals in his first game at home, which took place at the Armsterdam Arena.
It was because of his seventeen goals scored in 33 appearances or visibility that he was able to form a fruitful striking partnership with the league’s leading goal scorer, Klaan-Jan Huntelaar.
Ajax head coach Marco van Basten expressed his displeasure with Luis Suárez’s yellow card accumulation during the 2008-2009 season, despite Suárez’s significant contributions to Ajax’s goal record. Luis Suárez finished the season with 22 goals in 31 league matches, placing him in second place in the scoring table just behind Mounir El Hamdaoui of Az. This helped Ajax finish the season in third place overall. As a result, he was honored with the title of “Ajax Player of the Year.”
Martin Jol took over as head coach for the 2009–2010 campaign after Marco van Basten was fired from his position. After former Ajax captain Thomas Vermalean left to play for Arsenal, Martin Jol appointed Luis Suárez as the team’s new captain. After scoring 35 goals in 33 matches and a total of 49 goals across all competitions, Luis Suárez finished the season as the leading scorer in the Eredivisie. Suárez’s total goal tally for the season was 49. It was the second year in a row that he received the honor of being named Ajax Player of the Year.
During the time that Luis Suárez was serving his ban, Ajax maintained communication with other European clubs that had an interest in signing him. On the 28th of January in 2011, they decided to accept the bid of the Premier League team Liverpool for the player Luis Suárez, which was for 23.8 million euros. Even though he departed Ajax while he was serving a ban, the club nonetheless parted ways with him amicably, and he was given a formal send off after an Ajax match.
On the 31st of January in 2011, Luis Suárez signed a contract with Liverpool that would keep him there for the next five and a half years, until 2016. Up until a few hours later, when Andy Carroll was brought in for the price of €35 million, the signing of Luis Suárez by Liverpool was the most expensive player to be brought in by the club. Luis Suárez made a request to play for Liverpool with the number 7, which was traditionally reserved for Liverpool greats.
Luis Suárez ended the 2010 and 2011 seasons with a total of four goals scored in thirteen total games played. Luis Suárez renewed his commitment to play for Liverpool by signing a new long-term deal on August 12, 2012. Luis Suárez issued a demand on the 31st of May, 2013, that he would be exiting from Liverpool in the summer season. He cited the excessive attention from the media towards his family as the reason he wishes to leave, and he stated that this was the reason he wanted to leave.
On August 14, 2013, Luis Suárez retracted his earlier statement that he intended to leave the club and instead announced that he wanted to stay and was possibly going to sign a longer term contract. He credited the overwhelming support he receives from Liverpool fans for his about-face.
While the terms of Luis Suárez’s five-year contract with Barcelona were never made public, he was reportedly offered €82 million, making him one of the most expensive players in football history, according to documents leaked by FootballLeaks. As of the end of the 2014–2015 season, Barcelona announced that Luis Suárez would wear the No. 9 jersey moving forward. Luis Suárez made his professional debut for Barcelona on October 25, 2015, a 3-1 loss to Real Madrid. With the goal, Barcelona cruised to a 4-0 victory in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League on November 26, 2015. He scored his first league goal for the club in a victory over Cordoba on December 20, 2015.
After his first season with Barcelona, Luis Suárez scored 25 goals and added 20 assists.
Beginning the 2015–2016 season with a goal and an assist in Barcelona’s 5–4 extra-time triumph over Sevilla in the 2015 UEFA Super Cup on August 11, 2015, he scored the opening goal of the season. Luis Suárez became became the second player in Barcelona history to score 35 goals in a league season on April 30th, 2016.
In 2019, Luis Suárez became the third player in history (after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo) to win both the Golden Shoe and the Pichichi. After taking over as head coach at Barcelona on August 19, 2019, Ronald Koeman notified him that his services were no longer required.
He inked a two-year contract with Atlético Madrid on September 23 of this year (2019). Having scored 21 goals in his rookie season, he led all scorers at Atletico. On July 26, 2022, he made the decision to rejoin his childhood club, Nacional.
Luis Suárez’s Controversies
Even though the sports editor acknowledged that Luis Suárez fell into the referee by accident when he was only 16 years old and expressing his indignation over a red card, the incident was nonetheless widely reported. After he was discovered partying and drinking one night, his coach threatened he would never play again unless he sobered up.
In addition to being accused of and admitting to diving and being found guilty by the FA in 2011 for racially abusive behavior, Luis Suárez has been a source of controversy throughout his career, as seen by an incident involving a goal-line handball against Ghana at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. An altercation over a free kick at halftime led to Luis Suárez’s suspension from the team. The argument was with Albert Luque.
On November 20th, 2010 at the 0-0 draw between PSV and Liverpool, Luis Suárez bit PSV’s Otman Bakkal on the shoulder. He received a suspension and a fine that was not made public. The Dutch daily tabloid “De Telegraaf” dubbed Luis Suárez the “Cannibal of Ajax” for his violent on-field antics. Roughly seven months passed during the suspension.
Luis Suárez’s Religious Belief
Because Luis Suárez is a member of the Roman Catholic Church, one could classify him as a Christian.
Luis Suárez’s Ethnicity
Luis Suarez has ancestry from both Africa and Spain as well as Uruguay.
Luis Suárez’s Style of Play
Based on his FIFA profile, Luis Suárez is a player who creates goal-scoring opportunities with his powerful shot and superb technical skill. On top of that, he’s notorious for going straight at opponents and putting the ball between their legs. Many people have hailed him as the greatest strikers in history. Legend has it that he can score goals from wherever on the field, even the penalty spots.
Luis Suárez’s Personal Life
In Montevideo, Luis Suárez and Sofia Balbi started dating when they were both 15 years old. The couple’s first date took place in Montevideo.
In 2009, Luis Suárez tied the knot with Sofia Balbi, and the couple now has three children together. The first one is a girl, and her name is Delfina. She was born in 2010. Benjamin and Lauti were born to them in 2013 and 2018, respectively, completing their family.
According to legend, his daughter’s name, Delfina, is an anagram for “Anfield,” the home of his former team, the Liverpool Football Club. As part of his victory dance, he kisses the wrist where he had tattooed his daughter’s name.
Luis Suárez’s Honours
Luis Suárez has been awarded two golden shoes at the European level, a golden boot at the Eredivisie level, a golden boot at the Premier League level, and the Pichichi trophy on three separate occasions. Over the course of his club and international career, he has scored more than 500 goals.
Luis Suárez’s Net Worth
Luis Suárez is a well-known and well-paid footballer. His team has won several titles. The current estimated net worth of Luis Suarez is around $70 million.
