Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz ; born 24 January 1987, commonly known as Luis Suárez, is a Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a striker for Spanish club Barcelona and the Uruguay national team. Often regarded as one of the best players in the world,[note 1] Suárez has won 16 trophies in his career, including five league titles, a UEFA Champions League title and a Copa América. A prolific goalscorer, Suárez has won two European Golden Shoes, an Eredivisie Golden Boot, a Premier League Golden Boot, as well as ending the six-year dominance of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo by winning La Liga’s Pichichi Trophy in 2016. In October 2015, he scored his 300th senior career goal for club and country.[8] Suárez notched his 400th goal two years later, in December 2017.[9]
Suárez began his career as a youth player for Nacional in 2003. At age 19, he relocated to the Netherlands to play for Groningen, before transferring to Ajax in 2007. He won his first trophy in 2010, the KNVB Cup, finishing the season as the league’s top scorer and was named Dutch Footballer of the Year. A year later, he helped Ajax secure the Eredivisie title, and scored his 100th Ajax goal. In January 2011, Suárez transferred to Liverpool, and won the League Cup in his first full season at the club. In 2014, he was named the PFA Players’ Player of the Year and the FWA Footballer of the Year as well as winning the Premier League Golden Boot, and sharing the European Golden Shoe with Cristiano Ronaldo before moving to Barcelona in a transfer worth €82.3 million (£64.98 million), making him one of the most expensive players in football history.[10][11]
In his first season at Barcelona, Suárez starred in an attacking trio alongside Lionel Messi and Neymar, helping the club win a historic second continental treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League. The trio scored a total of 122 goals that season, the most for an attacking front three in Spanish football history. In his second season at the club, Suárez won his first Pichichi Trophy as well as his second European Golden Shoe, for which, he became the first player since 2009 to win both awards other than Messi or Ronaldo.[12] He ended the season with a total of 40 league goals, fourteen of which came in his last 5 matches, and 16 assists, becoming the first player in history to top La Liga in both goals and assists.[13][14]
Suárez is Uruguay’s all-time leading goalscorer. At the 2010 FIFA World Cup, he played an important role in Uruguay’s fourth-place finish, scoring three goals, as well as controversially blocking a goal-bound extra time header with his hands during the quarter-final against Ghana. At the 2011 Copa América, Suárez scored four goals as Uruguay won a record fifteenth Copa América, and he was named Player of the Tournament.[15] At the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, Suárez scored his 40th international goal. Suárez has been a source of controversy throughout his career.[note 2] As well as his goal-line handball, he has also bitten opponents on three separate occasions.[note 3] He has also been accused of and admitted to diving,[23][24] and in 2011, the FA found him guilty of racially abusing Patrice Evra,[25] a decision Suárez disputes.[26]
