Luis Suarez Profile

Luis Suarez is a Uruguayan footballer who plays for Spanish club Atletico Madrid. Previously, he played for Nacional, Groningen, AFC Ajax, Liverpool and Barcelona. He is also one of the most important players in the Uruguay national team.

Suarez is known for his work rate, speed and his unpredictability, which has brought his behaviour into question. During his stints at Ajax and Liverpool, controversial incidents were all too frequent.

There were three biting incidents, a high-profile racism case, and a transfer request to leave Liverpool for Arsenal within the space of a few short years. Not to mention Suarez's infamous handball in the quarter-finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup against Ghana.

Nevertheless, Suarez will go down in history as one of the most successful footballers of his generation.

Suarez joined Barcelona from Liverpool in 2014, after Uruguay had been eliminated from the FIFA World Cup, for a reported fee of €82.3million. Suarez was handed the number 9 shirt, but missed a portion of the season as he served a four-month suspension for biting Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup.

During the 2014/15 season, he was a part of the famed 'MSN' attacking trio, with Lionel Messi and Neymar, which saw Barcelona wrap up their third treble in six years. They beat Juventus 3-1 in the final of the UEFA Champions League with Suarez scoring the second goal for Barca, putting them ahead after Alvaro Morata had cancelled out Ivan Rakitic's opener.

Suarez scored 40 La Liga goals in the 2015/16 season to win the Pichichi Trophy (La Liga top scorer) and the European Golden Shoe.

Barcelona won La Liga and the Copa del Rey in 2015/16, but rivals Real Madrid claimed the UEFA Champions League.

In 2016/17, Barcelona began the season well by winning the Supercopa de Espana. However, they lost the La Liga title race to Real Madrid, who also retained their Champions League title.

The 2017 departure of Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain saw the end of the MSN era. Barcelona won La Liga in 2017/18, as Suarez scored 25 league goals. However, they were humiliated by AS Roma in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

In 2018/19, Barcelona once again won La Liga, but were knocked out of the Champions League in dramatic fashion. Suarez was lambasted for celebrating in Barca's 3-0 first leg win over Liverpool in the semi-finals, but the Reds came out on top as they won the second leg 4-0 and went on to lift the trophy.

In 2019/20, Barcelona lost the La Liga title race to Real Madrid and were hammered 8-2 in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals by Bayern Munich.

Amid reported financial turmoil at Barcelona, Suarez was forced out of the club and moved to Atletico Madrid. Suarez scored 195 goals in 283 games, in all competitions, for Barcelona.

Suarez was signed by Atletico head coach Diego Simeone on a two-year deal in September 2020. He was united with another one of the game's famous combative strikers, former Chelsea man Diego Costa.

"He is very good, one of us can do the fighting and the other can do the biting," Costa famously said of Suarez joining Los Rojiblancos.

The move caused consternation at Barcelona, with Messi in particular said to be angry at the club's decision to make Suarez leave the club.

His first season at Atleti has seen him remain as one of La Liga's top scorers, with his new club dominating the first half of the season in Spain's top tier with Suarez playing a big part in Atletico's success.

In his first outings in red and white, he secured a fantastic return of 12 goals in just 15 matches in La Liga.

Suarez moved from AFC Ajax to Liverpool in January 2011 for £23million. Initially, the intention on the part of Liverpool was for Suarez to complement Fernando Torres. However, Torres joined Chelsea at the end of the transfer window and Liverpool subsequently signed Andy Carroll from Newcastle United.

Suarez was banned for eight games during the 2011/12 season after the FA ruled that he had racially abused Manchester United's Patrice Evra. Suarez denied the allegation.

Suarez was not a prolific goalscorer for Liverpool until the 2012/13 season, when he scored 23 Premier League goals. It could have been more had he not been banned for biting Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic late in the season. He was charged with violent conduct, fined and given a 10-match ban. This was his second public biting incident, after he bit Otman Bakkal on the shoulder while playing for Ajax.

At the start of the 2013/14 season, Suarez submitted a transfer request to leave for Arsenal, but was convinced to stay at Anfield. He went on to score 31 Premier League goals and win the Golden Boot. However, Liverpool narrowly lost the title to Manchester City.

Suarez was banned for eight games during the 2011/12 season after the FA ruled that he had racially abused Manchester United's Patrice Evra. Suarez denied the allegation.

At the end of the season Suarez signed for Barcelona on a five-year deal.

Suarez rose to infamy for his handball that denied Asamoah Gyan a goal which would all but have sent Ghana to the semifinals of the 2010 World Cup. The Black Stars would have become Africa's first team to compete in the last four of a World Cup tournament.

Uruguay were beaten by the Netherlands in the semi-finals and Germany in the third place playoff, but they won the Copa America tournament the following year.

Suarez bit Giorgio Chiellini during the 2014 World Cup while Uruguay were playing Italy. The referee did not spot the incident at the time, but he was ultimately banned from football for four months.

Suarez was in Uruguay's Copa America Centenario squad in 2016, but injury limited his involvement in the tournament. He also played in the 2018 World Cup campaign which culminated in a quarter-final exit and the 2019 Copa America, which ultimately saw La Celeste go out at the same stage.

He has played 116 times for Uruguay and scored 63 goals.

Suarez is married to Sofia, his childhood sweetheart. The pair have three children, Delfina, Benjamin and Lauti. Forbes placed him 60th on their list of highest-paid athletes in 2018 with reported earnings of $23.6m.