Suarez book fails to do him justice
'SUAREZ' is a book written by an Italian, Luca Caioli, who is based in Spain, about a Uruguayan, who has spent the last seven years of his professional career between the Netherlands and England.
If that sounds like a recipe for a disaster, then this release offers up a main course size mish-mash.
Much like the subject Luis Suarez himself, this publication delivers in broken English. It's crude, much like you would expect from a native Italian, however, it's not evident whether the book was written in his native tongue and mangled by Google Translate or was simply written by a man using his second or third language.
What is clear about this offering from Icon Books Ltd. is that the publishing company didn't bother to employ someone to fact check the book. They also didn't fork out for a proof reader. Indeed, it's hard to believe that anyone even looked at the book before it was sent to the printers.
There are mistakes everywhere. From grammatical errors, to incorrect names (just ask Alan Cole), to contradicting statistics, to sentences that simply do not make any sense, this book excels in all those publishing blunders.
That there are three previous books in the series is a little disturbing. The fact that 'Messi', 'Ronaldo' and 'Naymar' were all successful enough to plough on with 'Suarez' is surprising. Who knows what might be next in the biographical series?
It's clear early in the book that the task of putting this together started while the subject was still a Liverpool player. The main positive for the author is that he travelled to Montevideo to interview a range of people that knew Suarez in his formative years - at least he got a holiday out of it.
In fairness, he also travels to the Barcelona star’s home town of Salto, Uruguay to meet the early influences in the attacker’s life.
He sets the scene of hard times, both with an existence on the poverty line and in a broken home.
After a few chapters you'll feel like you've bitten off more than you can chew with 'Suarez'.
Some of the story is interesting but much of it feels like people with half a story to sell bigging it up for a little slice of the Suarez pie.
The character himself is a divisive one, he's the kind of guy you love to have on your team but love to hate if he's with the opposition.
You all know his history, no need to go over old ground. Each indiscretion is dealt with in detail in this publication, often at the expense of actual quality information on his game achievements.
This book probably won’t change opinions either way, something that would be difficult in an offering with very few words from the subject himself.
One aspect of his life that is fascinating is his relationship with his wife Sofia, who he has been with since he was 15 and she was just twelve.
There are a few interesting stories in there too. Like how he didn't get along with one former manager who is also a football legend in Holland and how he's proud of his 'Hand of the Devil' act in the 2010 World Cup.
Overall this book looks like an inviting read on the outside but just simply doesn't live up to the promise.
For Liverpool fans their former star is still an interesting subject so the temptation to buy might be there.
However, there are two other books on Luis Suarez set to hit the shelves in the coming months and it would be worth your while waiting for those publications to get a better understanding of the problematic, yet brilliant, striker. DEAN GOODISON Visit The Book Centre on Wexford’s Main Street for the verybestselectionofsportsbooks.