INter Miami has added another superstar. The announcement of Inter Miami's latest signing means Lionel Messi will meet another former Barcelona teammate at the DRV PNK Stadium next season. Luis Suárez, along with former Camp Nou heroes Messi, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, have signed a one-year contract with the MLS side, with the option of a further year.
But by the time Messi and Suárez take the field for Inter Miami, it will have been almost four years since they last played together. Suárez, who turns 37 in January, played for three clubs in three countries during that time. How different is Suárez's version of a reunion with Messi as a player, having battled the inevitable effects of aging?
Suárez left Barcelona in the summer of 2020, a year before Messi's departure to Paris Saint-Germain. He joined Diego Simeone's Atlético Madrid, a club whose on-field philosophy of tenacity and defensive organization to win at all costs is in stark contrast to the cultivated passing game embraced at Camp Nou. Still, the Uruguayan thrived.
“There were certainly high expectations when Suárez arrived at Atlético and we should not forget that he had scored 16 league goals for Barcelona the previous season despite not playing that much,” said Madrid football journalist Euan McTear. “So most fans were convinced he could contribute. The question mark was how long he could play at the highest level and whether he could avoid injuries. Fortunately for Atlético, their gamble paid off.”
After appearing to have lost a degree of edge in his final months at Barcelona, the former Liverpool striker was rejuvenated by the move and, if his performances were any indication, determined to prove his decline had been vastly exaggerated. With 21 goals in 32 games, Suarez played a crucial role in Atlético's first La Liga title in seven years.
“He was a consistent contributor throughout,” says McTear, “even though Atlético as a whole faded in the second half of the season as the pressure increased. But Suárez rarely feels pressure and has remained calm in recent weeks. He was one of the few players in the squad who had previously won the league and that experience was crucial, especially as he scored the winning goals against Osasuna and Real Valladolid in the last two weeks.
“If Barcelona left Suárez because they feared he would refuse, they were more or less right. They just got the timing wrong. The decline eventually came, as is the case with everyone, but it was only in the second half of 2021-2022 that Suárez lost his place as a starter.”
When his two-year contract with Atlético expired in the summer of 2022, Suárez headed home and joined his boyhood team, Nacional from Montevideo, Uruguay. Seventeen years after making his professional debut for the club at the age of 18, the 138-player Uruguayan superstar led Nacional to the Primeira Division title. He scored eight goals in sixteen appearances in a short period of six months. It then continued to Brazil and Grêmio in December 2022.
“It was big news for a Brazilian club to sign a player of Suárez's stature,” said Robbie Blakeley, a football journalist from Rio. “There were some concerns about his physical condition. The problems with his knee are well documented. But he is a world-class talent, one of the best centre-forwards of the 21st century, so there was more excitement than concern when he arrived.
“Five minutes after his debut he scored a goal and before half-time he had a hat-trick. That really hyped up the Grêmio fans and people all over Brazil.”
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Suárez battled knee problems for much of his late Barcelona career. But in Brazil, given the heavy schedule of regional competitions, national cups and the national championship, his knee issues became more troublesome. He began to receive pain-killing injections before and after games and practised sparingly. He’d signed a two-year contract with Grêmio, but by July, there were reports he might cancel his deal in light of his injury struggles.
“I think he felt like he couldn’t do it any more,” Blakeley says. “The Brazilian calendar is very intense and the pitches aren’t always the best. He had a chat with the board. I think there was already talk that Suárez was going to move to Miami. But they agreed a deal that if he stayed until the end of the year, he could cancel the second year of his contract.
“Even since then, he gave everything for the club – every drop of sweat, every drop of blood. He ran himself into the ground. That’s why the fans loved him so much and he’s become such a hero, such an idol, in such a short space of time.”
Suárez finished the campaign with 26 goals and 17 assists from 53 appearances in all competitions, enough to inspire recently promoted Grêmio to second place in the league table and earn him the Golden Ball as the player of the season. Age and injuries meant Suarez was not the player of his Liverpool and Barcelona heyday – all swift turns, driving runs and penalty-box inventiveness – but he remained hugely effective as a scorer, creator and leader.
“His knees were hindering him a lot in terms of his pace and his ability to beat defenders,” Blakeley says, “but his movement was still there, his positioning, his in-game intelligence to find space, to link up with the midfield and attack. And his finishing doesn’t seem to have diminished at all. Obviously the Brazilian league is way, way down from the Premier League and La Liga, but he was able to adapt very easily.
“There was certainly some movement [remaining in his game], but I didn't see him dropping back as much as I would see him doing at Liverpool and Barcelona or even Atlético Madrid. He was more of a static, centre-forward goalkeeper. He would wait in advance. But his intelligence really shone at this level, his ability to find space, lose a marker and open up an opportunity for himself. That was his playing style in Brazil.”
Slightly less mobile these days and with injuries a recurring problem, yet still possessing a keen mind for the game and capable of winning matches – it seems Inter Miami's superstar South Americans still have a lot in common.