After their respective bitter Barcelona exits, the South American duo look incredibly set to play alongside one another again…
Just this summer, Luis Suarez appeared on the verge of retiring from football. Because of osteoarthritis in his left knee, the striker was said to be in "constant pain". "Luis Suarez is reaching his limit," Gremio president Alberto Guerra lamented. "To be able to play, he is given almost daily injections and special treatments."
However, even though Suarez will turn 37 in January, he isn't going to quit the game, though. On the contrary, he's now set to continue his career in MLS with Inter Miami. Talk about 'the Lionel Messi effect'!
Of course, while the prospect of Suarez becoming the the latest addition to the Barcelona All-Stars assembling at the DRV PNK Stadium generated quite the buzz in American soccer when it was first mooted in July, Gremio were less than impressed by the Uruguayan's miraculous recovery from his seemingly chronic injury issue.
"Suarez is now a problem that is in the president's hands," coach Renato Gaucho told reporters at the time. "They are exchanging ideas. As a coach, I have to focus on leading the team. "It seems like a Mexican soap opera that should end now."
There is little chance of that now, though. The Luis Suarez show, a source of seemingly never-ending drama over the past 15 years, is now set for a fittingly grand finale alongside his great friend Messi.
Getty ImagesSuarez's bitter Barcelona exit
Suarez and Messi spent six years playing alongside one another at Barcelona, winning 13 trophies together. However, the way in which their time at Camp Nou came to an end never sat right with either man.
Suarez was one of the victims of Barcelona's disastrous 2019-20 season – the club's first trophy-less campaign in 12 years. Ronald Koeman had informed the Uruguayan just days after being unveiled as the Blaugrana's new boss that he no longer had a future at the club but, according to Suarez, the Dutchman was merely doing Josep Maria Bartomeu's bidding.
The Barca president had publicly intimated that Suarez was for sale by leaving him off a list of players that he deemed 'untouchable' but the forward still insists that Bartomeu never actually spoke directly to him.
"The president said everything in the press instead of calling me," he later told El Partidazo de COPE. "The moment they wanted Leo [Messi] to stay they called me to use me to convince him, to talk to [Antoine] Griezman… So why didn’t they call me when they wanted me to leave? Or why did the coach not come and tell me that he does not count on me because he wants another type of striker?
"Koeman told me I wasn’t in his plans, then he said 'If we don’t figure this out by tomorrow, you’re back in my plans and I’m counting on you.' I saw then that the man had no personality. He was not strong enough to tell me I was not needed. The decision [to sell] came from the board."
AdvertisementGetty ImagesMessi furious over friend's exit
Whatever the precise truth, Messi was enraged by his team-mate's treatment, which was hardly surprising. From the moment of Suarez's arrival at Camp Nou in 2014, the pair gelled as well off the field as they had on it, forming a formidable front three with another South American in Neymar, who would also become a close friend.
Suarez and Messi's families also formed a strong bond, their children played together and their respective partners, Sofia Balbi and Antonella Roccuzzo, even opened a boutique together in 2017.
So, Suarez's horribly handled sale, which reduced the No.9 to tears, was always going to upset Messi, who vented his fury on Instagram after his fellow forward's transfer to Atletico Madrid had been confirmed.
"You deserved a farewell befitting who you are: one of the most important players in the history of the club, achieving great things for the team and on an individual level," Messi wrote. "You did not deserve for them to throw you out like they did. But the truth is that at this stage nothing surprises me any more."
Getty ImagesSuarez's revenge
By that stage, it was already clear that Messi's relationship with Bartomeu had completely broken down. In an exclusive interview with GOAL, the captain had eviscerated the president, accusing him of breaking a succession of promises, so his very public criticism of the club was wholly unsurprising.
But the Suarez sale also made little sense from a sporting perspective. Suarez may have been slowing down a tad but it was clear that he wasn't completely finished, given he had scored 21 times in 36 appearances during the 2019-20 campaign.
There was an obvious risk that Barcelona were weakening their attack while simultaneously strengthening a rival's – and that's exactly how it panned out, with Suarez making a mockery of the decision to ditch him by firing Atletico to the Liga title.
And Suarez being Suarez, he made no attempt to hide the fact that he had been driven by the bitterness over the brutal nature of his Barcelona exit, admitting that he had even considered sending a photo of himself celebrating his Primera Division success to Bartomeu and the board members who had removed him so unceremoniously from his former club's roster.
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GettyThe 'impossible' dream
Of course, just a few months later, Messi left Barcelona in tears, too.
Despite the financial mess left behind by Bartomeu, who was forced to step down in October 2020 with the Catalans of the verge of bankruptcy, it was hoped that his successor, Joan Laporta, would find a way to keep the club's all-time leading goalscorer on the books. But the grim economic reality of the situation put paid to that pipe-dream.
Messi left for Paris Saint-Germain and with that, his hopes of ever again playing alongside Suarez appeared to be over. Suarez spent a second season at Atletico but returned to first club Nacional in the summer of 2022. He left just six months later, after playing a pivotal role in a Uruguayan title win, but joined Gremio on a two-year contract.
So, even after Messi sensationally announced that he would be moving to MLS on June 7, Suarez quickly dismissed the idea that the pair might enjoy a reunion in Miami.
"It is impossible," Suarez told Uruguayan newspaper El Observador. "I am very happy at Gremio and I have a contract until 2024."