Luis Suarez came up the hard way and he has never allowed himself to forget it.
The Barcelona striker has claimed the Pichichi trophy for La Liga’s leading goalscorer. Scoring 40 goals in 35 games broke up a six season duopoly shared by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Suarez still admits he stands clear of Messi and Neymar in Barca training and let’s them do their wonderful thing.
His ‘thing’ is scoring goals. He did it for Ajax and he did it even more impressively for Liverpool. Now with one of the world’s best teams, he has gone into overdrive.
The other side of goal-scorer Suarez is the guy who must win at all costs. As we all know at this stage, that insatiable drive sometimes drives him beyond the legal and sinks him deep into suspension territory.
In an in-depth interview with Jorge Valdano, Suarez opens up about his thirst for football, how he feels at home in Barcelona and about an upbringing that was tough as hell and barely flush with cash. He says:
“I didn’t have the bus fare to go training [in Uruguay]. I would leave my house two and a half hours before a session so I could get there on foot.”
At the end of each session, Suarez would embark on the same walk home. Sometimes, if he was lucky, he would catch a lift part of the way from a teammate or coach.
Suarez’ family moved to Montevideo in order to find steady employment. His father worked in a biscuit factory and his mother was a cleaner in a bus terminal. Still, Suarez admits, if was often hard to put food on a table for a family of nine [he is one of seven brothers].
Suarez states that his frugal youth is a big part of the drive that forces him to chase down loose passes or close down defenders in the 90th minute, even if Barca are leading 4- or 5-0.
