![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Within months, he led the team in fouls, yellow cards, offsides, goals, shots, dribbles and assists, according to the data provider Opta. In January 2011, Suarez joined Liverpool. He had sacrificed himself for his country, said Eduardo Galeano, the great Uruguayan writer. He was sent off, but when Asamoah Gyan's ensuing penalty hit the crossbar, the cameras caught him cheering. In the Ghana-Uruguay quarterfinal at the 2010 World Cup, he saved a last-minute would-be winning Ghanaian shot with his hands. Unsurprisingly, Suarez entered global consciousness as a villain. "He's the son of Jol," teammates grumbled. Frequently, Suarez would be allowed to skip training. Van Basten's successor as coach, Martin Jol, learned to give Suarez his way. The security people at Amsterdam airport would always tell him to empty it every time, without fail, he'd get angry. His favorite companion was his silver pot of South American mate tea, which he took everywhere and cradled like a baby. He ignored most of the clubhouse, except the Spanish-speaking players. Ajax's then-coach, Marco van Basten, once a decent striker himself, used to lament within the club: "He can't really play soccer." David Endt, an Ajax official for more than 30 years, recalls Suarez as a "half player." The Uruguayan couldn't see team-mates unmarked in front of goal and didn't like passing to them anyway, in case they scored. Wright Thompson: Portrait of a serial winnerĪfter a year at Groningen, Suarez moved up to Ajax Amsterdam. Suarez is possibly the world's busiest player. He didn't even have a particular feint he'd just bull his way through. Rebounds - often off his own shins - would usually fall to him. It allowed him to stumble through defenders' challenges. Yet Suarez's improbable balance recalled Lionel Messi or an American football half-back. His shot was weak, his touch mediocre, he dribbled with his head down, he dived obviously to win free kicks and he once protested so wildly at being substituted that Groningen's coach threw an umbrella at him. He barely spoke a word of Dutch or English, and wasn't brilliant at soccer, either. That drive took him to the Netherlands at age 19 to play for little FC Groningen. To win, Uruguayans have always needed fighting spirit, or, as they call it, " la garra charrua," after the Charrua tribe that once inhabited this land and fought foreign occupiers. This country of 3.5 million people is crammed between Argentina (41 million) and Brazil (200 million). More probably, Suarez adopted the specifically Uruguayan attitude toward soccer. However, there are many poorer countries than Uruguay. He likes to say poverty gave him that drive. I can't conceive of anyone wasting even five minutes in a game." As he told Sid Lowe: "I have sacrificed so much to be where I am. He wasn't the most talented brother - he was just the most driven. Suarez grew up dreaming of earning enough from soccer to support his family. After his parents' divorce, the children and their mother moved in with their grandmother in Uruguay's capital, Montevideo. Cavani's family was well-off Suarez's wasn't. Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani had little in common. Twenty-seven years ago, two boys were born within three weeks of each other in Salto, a nowhere town in the Uruguayan interior. If he can recover from his cartilage operation in time to play in Brazil - reports suggest that he will - Suarez has a good case for appearing as a hero: the villain who came good. But the man prospectively cast as lead villain of the coming World Cup is Uruguay striker Luis Suarez. The chief villains - for neutral viewers - used to be West Germany and Diego Maradona the role of clown has long been England's, forever slipping on banana skins. Every World Cup needs heroes, villains and clowns. ![]()
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