Luis Suárez will arrive at Qatar 2022 as a champion. At the emblematic Centenario Stadium in Montevideo, venue for the final of the first World Cup, Uruguay 1930, the 35-year-old striker finished his preparation for the imminent World Cup in the Persian Gulf with his usual stamp: on Sunday he contributed two decisive goals for the consecration of his team, Nacional, as the winner of the 2022 Uruguayan league.
It was the 21st championship title in Suárez’s career, who also has 528 goals, but above all a happy ending for the sentimental bet he took less than three months ago. Free from Atlético de Madrid, the Pistolero ignored European proposals and, after a flirtation with River Plate in Argentina, he returned to his home team, in which he made his debut in the First Division in 2005 and 34 games later acted as a bridge for the start of his 16 years in Europe, from Groningen in 2006 to Atlético in 2022.
In the final of the Uruguayan season, Suárez scored twice in the 4-1 against Liverpool, a Montevideo club with 106 years of history whose name is inspired by the English city and not by the team in which the Pistolero stood out in 2010 to 2014, after passing through Ajax and prior to his outbreak in Barcelona. Chosen the best player in the final, Suárez’s were not filler goals, but the decisive ones in a rough match, which ended 1-1 in regular time and was only decided in extra time: he scored the 1-0 and the 2-1 partial, first with a forehand after a sudden break, in which he passed the ball between the legs to a rival defender, and then with a mid-height shot against the roof of the goal. Suárez and the goal are still looking for each other: in his 16 games in Nacional he scored 8 times, an average of one goal every two games.
The less than three months of the Pistolero in Nacional – he debuted on August 2 and said goodbye this Sunday – seem to have been a footballing, physical and mental success for the striker who, according to the plans of the Uruguayan coach, Diego Alonso, will play in Qatar 2022 in the middle of the attack, seconded by Darwin Núñez (in the original Liverpool, the British) and Edison Cavani. “It was a round, perfect evening. I feel happy and proud of having made the right decision. I had to put pressure on myself to live up to Nacional and show that I was still keen”, said Suárez, who celebrated the title by jumping into the Centennial pit, with water up to his waist, which acts as a pool that separates the playing field from the stands.
20 days before the start of the World Cup, La Celeste began training this Monday in Montevideo with the players who play in South American tournaments, with the exception of Suárez, who will take some more time off. El Pistolero will no longer play in Nacional: in 2023 – he will turn 36 on January 24 – he will sign for another foreign club, possibly from the United States MLS. “Total gratitude for the love they gave me since I arrived until today, which is the day I am leaving,” he added.
After his departure from Atlético de Madrid in the middle of the year, Suárez returned to Uruguay far from his best physical version, but between the end of August and the beginning of October he achieved at least part of the recovery he needed to reach Qatar 2022, a tournament in which Celeste will share group H with South Korea, Portugal and Ghana. His debut in Nacional, on August 2, did not prevent the 0-1 defeat of his team against Goianense from Brazil, for the quarterfinals of the South American Cup. A week later, a new setback, 3-0, would mark the elimination of his team, an initial blow for what seemed to be Suárez’s main objective: to break the international following of the Uruguayan clubs, which have not won a Conmebol title since 1989. Another blow for Nacional in the second half of 2022 was the elimination of the Uruguay Cup against the modest Rampla, from the Second Division, although Suárez did not play that night because he was with his team.
Already more acclimatized to his teammates, the top scorer of the Uruguayan team was a key weapon for the National title. His eight goals were shared between the two in the final against Liverpool, one against Peñarol in the great Uruguayan classic and another five against more modest rivals, such as Albion, Danubio, Rentistas, Plaza Colonia and Boston River. It was the 49th annual league in the history of Nacional, the maximum champion of Uruguay, in a football in which the team of Suárez and Peñarol share more than 95% of the titles. “He is a player touched by a magic wand, he appears when he has to appear: in the classic and today. He gets the award from the people for how he applauded him and thanks him, ”said Pablo Repetto, coach of Nacional.
Suárez will play his fourth World Cup in Qatar 2022, a tournament in which he has scored seven goals in 13 games: if he converts one, he will reach Óscar Míguez, Celeste’s top scorer in the World Cups, with eight, between Brazil 1950 and Switzerland 1954 But the Gunslinger’s contribution to the World Cups is also famous for other reasons, for better or for worse: in South Africa 2010 he made a providential save at the last minute against Ghana (for which he was sent off but allowed the penalty shootout that led to Uruguay to the semifinals) and in Brazil 2014 he bit the Italian Giorgio Chiellini in the neck, an attack for which he was suspended for four months by FIFA. Suarez returns as a champion.
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