All About Sports: Luis Suarez

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Luis Suarez

Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz (born 24 January 1987), commonly known as Luis Suárez, is a Uruguayan international footballer who plays for Premier League club Liverpool as a striker. Suárez also plays for the Uruguayan national team. He is known as 'El Pistolero' (The Gunner).Suárez grew up in Salto alongside six siblings, with a single mother.In 2005, he began his 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 and the departure of Thomas Vermaelen to Arsenal in 2009, Suárez was made the club captain. Suarez moved to Liverpool for €26.5 million in January 2011, briefly becoming the club's most expensive player.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 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, Dennis Bergkamp and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.In 2011, Suárez scored four goals for Uruguay in winning the 2011 Copa América, and was named player of the tournament.