Much has been said about Luis Suarez in his career. Much of the talk has been good, and how prolific and exquisitely beautiful the Uruguayan plays with the ball; 31 goals in 36 games for Liverpool last season underline that fact. However, the actions he has ridiculously implemented on others, and indeed himself, without the ball, are shameful. He has bitten Otman Bakkal, Branislav Ivanovic and now Giorgio Chiellini without anyone knowing why. Not only does Suarez face an incredibly long ban and his future at Liverpool hanging in the balance, he faces an impossible task to change the views of the people angered by his behaviour. In this case scoring goals might not be enough.
Luis Suarez was born in Salto, Uruguay on the 24th January 1987. He moved to Montevideo when he was aged seven. Suarez, like many other great footballers such as Ronaldinho and Maradona, learnt his football on the streets. Nacional, a Montevideo based football club, were impressed by Suarez’s skills and, after a trial, he signed for them aged 14. What occurred next was the Uruguayan’s first controversy. When he was 16 years old he, allegedly, head-butted a referee after he was shown a red card. This is Suarez in a nutshell; a person who seems like he is humble and talented but produces moments of madness. I’m not sure that he actually understands how severe his actions can be.
Does the background that he was brought up in affect that though? Maybe it does. Suarez’s parents split apart when he was nine years old, and that is tough for any child to take. His grandmother also used to call her husband “Mi Negrito”. That is the term that Suarez used against Patrice Evra, when the Manchester United left back accused him of racism. It was racism, but he was brought up in an environment where that was acceptable to say. However, Suarez did not apologize on that incident. That is where he is flawed; his temperament is blemished.
Suarez came to Europe to find his childhood love, Sofia Balbi. It was also where he started his footballing career, playing for Dutch club Groningen before moving on to Ajax. At Ajax he was prolific scoring 81 goals in 110 games; a goal scoring record synonymous with the textbook football that the Uruguayan plays. However, with Suarez controversy is not far away.
Although he head-butted a referee when he was 16 years old that was only in front of around 20-30 people. His first incident, at Ajax, was in-front of around 35,000 people. The match was Ajax vs PSV. The date was 14th March 2010 and Ajax won the game convincingly 4-1. However, it was marred with controversy. Luis Suarez appeared to bite Otman Bakkal in the shoulder, and video footage confirmed it. Blood was drawn from the shoulder of the PSV player and Suarez was banned for seven matches. We would have thought, at this point, it was a mistake, and Suarez did indeed apologize after this incident. That is where he should have stopped his unprecedented behaviour there.
For the same incident to happen twice, or three times in Suarez’s case, is completely unforgiving. The second time the incident occurred was when Liverpool played Chelsea at Anfield in 2013. Again, Suarez was brilliantly influential in the game, equalizing in the 92nd minute to save a point for the Merseyside club. Albeit, he shouldn’t have even been on the pitch by the time he scored. Ten minutes earlier Suarez and the Chelsea right back, Branislav Ivanovic, were in a tussle together and what seemed to filter onto the many cameras around Anfield was truly shocking. Suarez seemed to get hold of Ivanovic’s arm and tried to bite it. Memories were brought back from the Ajax – PSV game and this time Suarez was banned for eight matches by the English Football Association (FA).
Then, in the summer of 2013, Suarez stated he wanted to leave Liverpool but Brendan Rodgers turned his mind around, and the boy who grew up in Montevideo around the time of Liverpool’s demise nearly captured their first title since 1991, with his truly astonishing goals.
So, now, we would have thought that Suarez would have no more controversy surrounding him, as the time was leading up to the biggest sporting event on the planet; although Olympians might disagree. A World Cup in Brazil and Suarez was fighting to be fit, but a half fit Luis Suarez is better than a lot of other players. That’s what we saw. Against England he had two chances and scored twice, making sure he made his mark.
In the next match though, he made his mark on Giorgio Chiellini. The world was astonished. How can such a decorated footballer perform such travesty again? In any other job Suarez would have got immediately sacked. The reaction of the public wasn’t this time more in anger, but in shock that “you would have thought he would have learnt his lesson by now”.
One similarity to this incident is when Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield’s ear. Tyson at that time was not just the biggest name in boxing, but he was one of the biggest names in sport. To do that was an outrage in the public eye, and Tyson lost his boxing license. Four years later the American retired.
People will also say this is similar to the Eric Cantona situation as well but the Frenchman learnt from his mistake; Suarez hasn’t. It has now got to the stage where Suarez probably doesn’t just need a long ban, but he needs psychiatric help urgently. Dr Steven Peters works at Liverpool and he has to help the Uruguayan understand the severity of his actions, but also; why is he doing it?
We know Suarez is a passionate footballer who loves his job and he once said “Whenever my team loses I see it as a threat against my family”. That’s brilliant for the game. We need passionate people like that playing football nowadays. However, has it now got to a stage where the chapters are running out and the story is ending for Suarez due to his ludicrous actions?
His future at Liverpool hangs in the balance, and just because he is a good footballer he is not immune to the punishments that others would receive if they did the same thing. For me, Suarez needs to take a break from the game for at least a year and get psychiatric help. Paulo Coelho once said “When you repeat a mistake, it is not a mistake anymore; it is a decision”, and that quote epitomizes this situation.
Written by Nadeem – @nadz_robbani//@100PercentAFC
Football After Dark 