Love him or hate him it’s difficult to overlook the quality of Luis Suarez. With 18 goals this season the Uruguayan is just three behind former Barcelona team-mate Lionel Messi in the race for LaLiga’s golden boot. But after Ronald Koeman’s arrival as Barca boss last summer, the pantomime villain was deemed to be surplus to requirements after six prolific seasons at the Camp Nou.
Back in the summer of 2020, in what was a whirlwind transfer, Suarez traded the Blaugrana for Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid in a cut-price deal of just over £5million that left the footballing world in shock.
Why did Barcelona allow Luis Suarez to leave?
Barcelona agreed to let Suarez leave as a free agent stating they would pay the difference between Suarez’s £12m salary at the club he joined, allowing Atletico to acquire his services for a nominal fee.
At 34-years-old Barcelona were sure that his best days were behind him and were happy to give the transfer the green light. However, fast forward six months and it’s a decision that may have cost Barcelona the title.
Since leaving that Catalan club, Suarez has spoken out many times about his departure from Barca. He has stated that the board had deemed him ‘too old’ to perform at the desired level, despite the striker’s impressive statistics.
The Uruguayan made 283 appearances in total for Barcelona, contributing 198 goals and 97 assists in all competitions. These figures give the former Liverpool striker an impressive average of nearly 50-goal contributions per season at Barca.
Suarez excelling at Atletico Madrid
Since his arrival in Madrid, Suarez has netted 18 times with his goals contributing heavily to Atletico’s title push. Simeone’s side currently four points ahead of second-placed Barcelona with 11 games remaining.
After scoring 16 goals in his first 17 Atletico LaLiga games, Suarez became the first player to do so in the Spanish top-flight this century. The previous best of 15 goals in the same number of matches was set by a certain Cristiano Ronaldo during his stellar start to a lengthy spell at Real Madrid, after joining from Manchester United in 2009.
In Barcelona, Suarez leaves behind a club in complete disarray with his club legend Messi set to leave as a free agent this summer. They also have to juggle with their mountainous debt that has increased due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Once part of Barcelona’s brilliant MSN trio (Messi, Suarez and Neymar), Suarez remains extremely close with Messi. The No 9’s departure has irked the Argentine all season who publicly expressed his disappointment a number of times.
Despite his age, Suarez has shown no signs of slowing down as he continues to score goals at football’s highest level. Atletico face the possibility of winning LaLiga for just the second time in the last 25 years and a large part of that will be down to his arrival.
After signing a two-year contract at Atletico, Suarez is well on his way to securing an extension to that deal.
If he maintains his fitness and eye for goal then Barca will forever rue the day they allowed one of their greatest-ever goalscorers leave to join a direct rival.
