What would you do for love? Miss a night out with the lads?
Sit through a dull rom-com when there's football on the other channel? Max out
your overdraft every Valentine's Day?
Good for you. How about moving half way round the world,
just so you could be within a two-hour flight of your loved one?
That's what Luis Suarez did, aged 19.
Having burst onto the scene at Nacional, impressing with his
impish talent and indefatigable style, Suarez's personal life was turned upside
down when Sofia Balbi, the woman who "sorted his head out" amid a
troubled youth career, moved to Barcelona to study.
Suarez was in the midst of helping Nacional to yet another
Uruguayan title, scoring in both legs of their play-off triumph over Rocha FC,
but Sofia's absence affected him deeply.
"My happiness was not complete," he says.
"Sofia and I had a long distance relationship for a year.
"Despite this, I could not give up on our relationship
and when I got a call to play in Europe I didn't think twice."
That call came from Holland. FC Groningen, a middling club
in the Eredivisie, had sent a delegation to watch one of Suarez's Nacional
teammates, in a league game against Defensor. The report which returned to the
Netherlands consisted of three words; sign Luis Suarez.
So they did. The fee of 800,000 euros caused barely a ripple
among the cash-rich European game, but represented a sizeable outlay for a side
like Groningen.
"Groningen were one of the first Dutch sides to target
the Uruguayan market specifically," says Dutch journalist Leander Schaerlaeckens.
"Dutch clubs tend to stick to what they know. For
example, Ajax get a lot of players from Denmark, PSV from Brazil, whilst AZ
Alkmaar have used the Belgian market.
"Groningen saw an opportunity. They brought Bruno Silva
from Danubio, and a year later they went back for Suarez. It proved a terrific
signing."
More importantly for Suarez, the move meant he was closer to
Sofia. The pair would travel between Barcelona and Groningen whenever time
allowed, their long-distance relationship having been shortened considerably.
Not that everything was perfect to begin with, though.
"It was hard for him at first," says Ron Jans,
Groningen's manager at the time. "He wasn't happy and struggled to adapt.
He just wanted to play but he was in the reserves.
"He was so impatient. He had problems getting used to
the referees, he was a little bit heavy and it took him some time to get fit.
But once he was, he was probably the best I've worked with. He's a real winner,
he cannot stand losing."
His debut campaign in Europe passed in a blur. Suarez's
performances improved rapidly as he established himself, his off-field life
helped when Sofia joined him in Holland.
Groningen were a decent, if unspectacular, side, who would
finish the 2006-07 season in eighth place. Suarez, though, gave them star
quality.
"It was a bit of a struggle," says Erik Nevland,
his strike partner throughout that season. "But once he cracked the code,
he played unbelievably every week. He was tremendous."
Suarez netted 15 times in 37 appearances in all
competitions, though he would also begin to earn a reputation that has proven
tough to shift since.
"He got a lot of stick for the way he went down to win
free-kicks and penalties," remembers Nevland. "But that is his type
of play. He won't change that."
Jans, meanwhile, remembers encountering a different type of
problem.
"In one game I took him off and he was really
unhappy," he says. "He didn't shake hands and he wanted to go
straight to the dressing room.
"I was angry with him. It was raining hard and I threw
my umbrella at him. Afterwards I told him he couldn't act like that in Holland
and that he had to control himself. In the next game, we were 3-1 down against
Vitesse Arnhem with 10 minutes to play and we won 4-3, with Luis scoring two
goals. Afterwards I gave him my umbrella, and he paraded it around in front of
the crowd."
Suarez's time at Groningen, however, was always likely to be
short-lived. A player scoring goals for a provincial Dutch time will always
invite interest from the traditional powerhouses and sure enough, in the summer
of 2007, Ajax, their coffers boosted by the sale of Ryan Babel to Liverpool,
came knocking.
A bid of 3.5m was turned down flat, but with Suarez eager to
move to Amsterdam, an impasse was reached. The player went to the KNVB, the
Dutch Football Association, to try to force through a deal, at one point
threatening to go on strike.
An arbitration committee ruled against him, but Ajax were
determined to get their man. Eventually, a deal worth 7.5m was agreed, and
Suarez was on his way once more.
"In his first season at Ajax, he was used as a wide
forward," says Leander Schaerlaeckens. "He scored goals, but he spent
most of it being scorned by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar for not providing good enough
service."
Still, 22 goals as a support act (Huntelaar netted 36) was a
handy return. And when Huntelaar moved on to Real Madrid midway through the
following campaign, Suarez assumed centre stage. His relationship with Marco
Van Basten was fraught - the pair "barely spoke" according to Suarez
- but the goals flowed. Suarez plundered 28 in his second season at Ajax, but
would scale new heights once Martin Jol, the current Fulham boss, had taken
over from Van Basten at the start of the 2009-10 season.
"Jol made Suarez the most important player," says
Roberto Decock of the Ajax Supporters Club. "He made him team captain,
talked a lot with him and tuned the rest of the team into Suarez."
It paid dividends. Suarez scored a staggering 49 goals in 48
appearances under Jol, guiding Ajax to the KNVB Cup in the process. He was
named Dutch Footballer of the Year for his performances.
"He was always a great player," remembers Jol.
"He became one of the best finishers in world football."
Though if his goalscoring was never in question, his
temperament most definitely was.
"He was always getting into trouble with
referees," says Schaerlaeckens. "He was actually voted as the
Eredivisie's most irritating player by supporters, and that was because he
would often dive or go to ground, and he was forever arguing with
referees."
His final game for Ajax came in December 2010. By then, he
was serving a seven-game ban after a clash with PSV Eindhoven's Ottman Bakkal,
in which he was seen to bite his opponent on the shoulder. "The Cannibal"
was one front-page headline the following day.
He was also, by that point, attracting admiring glances from
across the North Sea. Liverpool called. The next stage of the journey beckoned.
His feet may have taken him to the top of the world, but it
would be his hand that shook it.
July 2, 2010. Crouched in the corner of Johannesburg's
Soccer City stadium, barely able to turn his eyes to the pitch, Suarez watches
as Asamoah Gyan skies his penalty high over the crossbar, and explodes into a
jig of delight. Delight and relief.
Moments earlier, Uruguay's No.9 had been ordered from the
field, sent off after denying Ghana what would have been a winning goal with
his hand.
Uruguay, of course, went on to win the quarter-final clash
after a penalty shoot-out. Suarez's actions, though, attracted widespread
condemnation, in particular from the British press.
The truth is, though, that Suarez's handball, and his
willingness to celebrate it, is representative more of a burning desire for
success than anything else. It is a shame that his contribution to the
tournament should be overshadowed by something which, surely, any professional
would have done.
Suarez found the net three times in South Africa, as Uruguay
blustered all the way to the semi-finals, where they were beaten, narrowly, by
Holland.
Alongside Diego Forlan, and the fast-emerging Edinson
Cavani, Suarez completed a fearsome attacking triumvirate, announcing himself
on the world stage with glee.
"It was a fantastic tournament for Uruguay, and for
Luis," Forlan told the ECHO. "It was a team performance, but there
were so many great performances throughout. Luis was one of those, definitely.
He was very good.
"Uruguay's national team is like a club side, everyone
gets on really well with one another. Myself, Edinson and Luis have a good
relationship, and I think that could be seen on the pitch. It was a great
tournament to be part of."
