Football Player's Biography 7: luis suarez

Full name	Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz
Date of birth	24 January 1987 (age 24)
Place of birth	Salto, Uruguay
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position	Striker

Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈlwiz 'swares]; born 24 January 1987) is a Uruguayan international footballer who plays professionally for English team Liverpool, as a striker. Suárez also plays for the Uruguayan national team.
Having grown up in Salto alongside six siblings, with a single mother.In 2005, he began professional career at Montevideo side Nacional. His older brother Paolo Suárez is also a professional football player.
He moved to the Netherlands with Eredivisie side Groningen in 2006 at the age of 19, before transferring to Ajax in 2007. He made a major impact at the Amsterdam club as a supporting striker with the main striker initially being Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, then Marko Pantelić, and later Mounir El Hamdaoui. Following the arrival of manager Martin Jol at Ajax in 2009, Suárez was made the club captain following the departure of Thomas Vermaelen to Arsenal.
In 2010, Suárez was named Dutch Footballer of the Year, having ended the season as top scorer in the Eredivisie with 35 goals in 33 league matches (49 goals in all competitions). On 5 August 2010, Suárez became a father, with his wife bearing a baby daughter named Delfina in Barcelona.Also in 2010, Suárez became a member of the select group of players having scored more than 100 goals for Ajax in competitive matches, joining players like Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten, and Dennis Bergkamp.

Club career

Early career

In Uruguay, Suárez played for Nacional. During his time with the Uruguayan club under the management of ConCon, he won the national championship with the club.

Groningen

After that successful season, Groningen purchased him for approximately € 800,000. During his first season in Europe, Suárez performed well at Groningen, scoring 10 goals in 29 appearances.His impressive play attracted the attention of other European clubs and, following the season, he was sold to Ajax for 7.5million on 9 August 2007.

Ajax

The transfer initially seemed doomed when Suárez lost his case before the Dutch Football Association's arbitration committee.That same day, however, Ajax informed Groningen that they would be willing to pay more for him. Without Suárez in the line-up, Ajax won the Johan Cruijff Shield prior to the start of the 2007–08 season.
Suárez made his official debut for the team in the Champions League qualifier against Slavia Prague.In the match he won a penalty kick for Ajax, though it was missed by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. In his Eredivisie debut for the club, he scored one goal, made three assists and won another penalty, helping Ajax beat newly promoted De Graafschap 8–1.In his home debut at the Amsterdam Arena, he scored another two goals against Heerenveen to continue the excellent start to his Ajax career. He then scored a hat-trick for the club in the league match against Willem II, to take his tally for Ajax to 14 goals in 27 appearances. He ended his first season with Ajax with 20 goals in 40 appearances.

Suárez received a lot of negative attention in the 2008–09 season, due to the high number of yellow cards he received He was given a seventh yellow card against Utrecht in a 2–0 win for Ajax, which earned him a suspension against Den Haag.He ended the 2008–09 season with 22 goals from 31 games in the league,finishing second in the top-scorers table, a goal behind Mounir El Hamdaoui of AZ.

In the 2009–10 season Suárez scored his first league goals in the second match against RKC Waalwijk on 8 August 2009, scoring a hat-trick in a 4–1 victory, with the second goal being a 25-meter scorcher. He added more goals by scoring two goals against arch-rivals PSV Eindhoven, despite finishing on the losing side as Ajax were defeated 4–3.In the play-off round first-leg of the newly-incepted UEFA Europa League, Suárez netted four goals in a 5–0 win over Slovan Bratislava on 20 August 2009.A month later, on 20 September 2009, Suárez scored four goals in a 4–0 win against VVV, taking his tally this season to 10 goals in seven league games.He scored one goal and missed two penalties as Ajax beat Timişoara 2–1 to reach the knockout stage of the Europa League.On 23 December 2009, he scored six goals in a single match against the amateur team of WHC in the Dutch cup helping Ajax to win by a record margin of 14–1.On 11 April 2010, Suárez scored three goals during the first half as VVV this time were defeated 7–0. Suárez ended the 2009–10 season as top scorer in the league with 35 goals (49 goals in all competitions) and was named Dutch Footballer of the Year.
At the start of the 2010–11 season, Suárez scored his 100th goal for Ajax, in a 1–1 home draw against PAOK in the Champions League third qualifying round.On 29 August 2010, Suárez scored a hat trick against De Graafschap in a 0–5 away win. In November 2010, Ajax suspended Suárez for two league matches after he bit PSV Eindhoven's Otman Bakkal on the shoulder during their 0–0 draw on 20 November 2010. He was also fined an undisclosed amount which the club said they would donate to a "good cause". The Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf branded Suarez the “Cannibal of Ajax”.The KNVB penalized Suárez with a suspension for seven league matches. Because of his suspension, Suárez did not play any league matches under new manager Frank de Boer. The last official match he played was for the Uefa Champions League at A.C. Milan. He was last seen in an Ajax-shirt in a friendly against Galatasaray and he scored his last goal in a friendly against Hamburger SV.

Liverpool

On 28 January 2011, Ajax accepted a £23 million (€26.5 million) offer for Suárez from Premier League club Liverpool. The following day, Suárez passed his medicaland signed a five and a half-year deal that will keep him with the club until 2016. He became the club's record signing for approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes until the arrival of Andy Carroll from Newcastle United.Suárez made his Liverpool debut on 2 February against Stoke City at Anfield,coming off the bench in the 63rd minute to score Liverpool's second goal in front of the kop as they won 2-0.Suarez started his first game for Liverpool against Wigan Athletic on 12 February 2011, he gained the LFC.TV MOTM award for his performance.

International career

Suárez made his debut for the Uruguay on 8 February 2007, in a 3–1 win against Colombia. He was sent-off in the 85th minute after receiving a second yellow card. Suárez has since continued participating with the Uruguayan national team, becoming a starter in the first four games of the 2010 World Cup qualifier. He has scored two goals in four games, against Bolivia and Chile, forming a lethal striking force with compatriot Diego Forlán.

2010 FIFA World Cup

On 1 June 2010, Óscar Tabárez announced that Suárez would be part of the final squad of 23 participating in the 2010 World Cup.Suárez was a starter in all three Uruguay's group matches at the World Cup. On 22 June, he scored his first goal against Mexico and helped Uruguay win their group. On 26 June 2010, during the Round of 16, he scored both goals against South Korea in a 2–1 win and put Uruguay through to the quarter-finals for the first time since 1970.During the 2010 World Cup Suarez scored three goals, made six appearances, played for 543 minutes and received one red card.At the World Cup, Suárez was an integral part of the Uruguayan team that reached the semi-final, forming a formidable partnership with Diego Forlán, scoring three goals, before eventually losing to the Netherlands (Suárez was suspended for the semi-final against Holland). He gained worldwide notoriety during the quarter final match against Ghana for handling the ball on the line in the last minute of extra-time and then celebrating Asamoah Gyan's subsequent penalty miss.Uruguay won the penalty shoot-out that followed.

Personal life

Suárez grew up alongside six siblings, with a single mother. He married his childhood girlfriend, Sofia Balbi, in a Catholic ceremony in 2009, and they had their first daughter, Delfina, on 5 August.His older brother Paolo Suárez is also a professional football player.