Luis Suarez 101
Well, I think it's time to do something like this for our new boy, since he scored last night and everything. This is actually just a very bad excuse to introduce him to you guys, since I feel like there's barely anything known about him whatsoever.
Luis Alberto Suárez Días was born on January 24 (I was born on that day too lol) 1987 in Salto, Uruguay. Salto is for your information the second largest city in Uruguay, with around 99 000 inhabitants.
Luis was raised by a single mother, and has got six siblings. His brother Paolo Suárez (born 1980) is also a football player, playing as a midfielder for a team called Isidro Metepán.
At the age of 11, Luis moved around 100 km away from home to join the Montevideo-based team Nacional.
Not much is known about his time in Nacional (at least according do Google), but he did win the national league with his club in 2006, scoring 12 goals in 29 appearances.
His move to European football also came in 2006, when the Dutch team Groningen purchased him for around € 800,000. He stayed at Groningen for only one season, scoring 10 goals in 29 appearances. He was eventually sold to Ajax for € 7.5 million.
Luis joined Ajax in 2007, and enjoyed great success during his 3.5 years at the club. Suárez made his first debut for the club in a Champions league qualifier against Slavia Prague, not scoring but winning a penalty for his team. His first Eredivise match was more successful in terms of goals; he scored once, made three assists and won a penalty for the team. He ended his first season at Ajax having scored 20 goals in 40 appearances.
The 2008-2009 season brought a lot of bad publicity, mainly because of the big amount of yellow cards Suárez collected throughout the season. He scored 22 goals in 31 games, ending second in the top goal scorer table.
The 2009-2010 season saw him score a lot of goals, including a couple of hattricks and four goals in one match against VVV. He also managed to score 10 goals in 7 games. This time around, he ended up at the top of the goal scoring table. He was also named Dutch Footballer Of The Year.
The 2010-2011 will always be remembered as the season when Luis scored his 100th goal for Ajax. Or the season when he bit another player. And it will also be remembered as the season when he left Ajax and joined us!
Luis also plays for the Uruguay National Team. He made his debut in 2007 against Colombia (a 3-1 win for Uruguay) but was later sent off after receiving his second yellow card.
He took part in the 2010 World Championship, where Uruguay ended up being placed 4th after losing to the Netherlands. In the WC, he scored three goals, made six appearances, played for 543 minutes and received one red card.
And then there's the famous hand ball that got him sent off.
This is what he said about the accident: "The 'Hand Of God' now belongs to me. I did it so that my team-mates could win the penalty shoot-out. When I saw Gyan miss the penalty it was a great joy"
He's married to a really sweet girl, his childhood sweetheart Sofia Balbi. They got married in 2009, and they've got the cutest little daughter. Her name is Delfina, she was born in Barcelona on August 5 2010. He apparently likes showing her off!
Random facts about Luis:
- Suarez is nicknamed 'El Pistolero' which translates as 'The Gunfighter
- His most prominent features are his pointy ears and bucked teeth. His ears gained so much attention, he even did appeared in an advert for hearing aids!
- He's got some kind of tribal tattoo on his right arm.
- He used to have longer hair but his girlfriend asked him to cut it once he became the captain of Ajax. His girlfriend thought it would show the club that Suárez was mature enough to be a captain.
- His favorite footballer is Lionel Messi.
- These are his key attributes (according to himself, that is): "I can say that I am technically very good, and I am lucky to be able to score goals easily. However, I don't like to talk about myself; I prefer others to say what they think of me."
- Here, have a picture of him with longer hair!
- Even though he bit a guy and whatnot, he seems to be a very happy person. And he's ridiculously adorable too
Sources: Wikipedia, Liverpoolfc.tv, ESPN and Google + Tumblr for images. And duh, Youtube for the videos.