URUGUAY TALISMAN SUAREZ THE BANDIT FROM THE BACK STREETS

The past pointers that illustrate the desire behind Luis Suarez

THERE can be little mistake who we’re talking about. ‘When he played in my team, he was always on the brink of clashing with players,’ says Ricardo Perdomo, the youth team coach at Nacional, Uruguay’s leading club. ‘That’s just the intensity with which he plays. He didn’t care about anything other than scoring and winning. Many times I had to calm him down.’

Alejandro Garay, another coach at Nacional, agrees. ‘I hope these words aren’t misunderstood, but he has always been something of a rough diamond when playing football,’ he says. ‘The word we use is “bandit”. He would try anything to win a match, taking the rules to the limit and even beyond.’

It could only be Luis Suarez. While he has established his reputation in England as one of the world’s best footballers, he is also the man who bit Branislav Ivanovic – the second such incident in his career – and the man who was found guilty of racially abusing Patrice Evra. And then there is the diving and arguing with referees, though in comparison to his worst misdemeanours, those seem relatively minor.

The talent, the temper and tantrums: they all seemed inseparable chords of the personality that makes up Suarez. And all were evident from the early days, but for a player now ranked by some only behind Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the world’s greatest, at the age of 15 he was in danger of being dropped by Nacional.

‘There was no certainty that he would be a professional player,’ said Perdomo. ‘When he was younger, he didn’t play too much. His teammates, like Bruno Fornaroli and Martin Cauteruccio, kept him out of the first team and, truth be told, at that time I couldn’t see him becoming what he is now.’

Suarez had moved to Montevideo from Salto at the age of seven, although the transition to the capital was troubled, according to those close to him, because of the split between his parents, Rodolfo and Sandra, when he was nine years old.

‘He was a kid,’ said Perdomo. ‘Naturally he was carrying some family problems, due to his parents’ split. Sometimes he would miss training sessions. That’s why in his beginning he didn’t take football that seriously.’

THE SCOUT who had taken him to Nacional, Wilson Pirez, remembers that pivotal period of Suarez’s life. ‘There was a time I said to him: “If you don’t take football seriously I can release you from Nacional, just as easily as I brought you here.” It bothered me that he was not playing, so I persuaded him to try harder to be part of the regular youth teams.

‘He understood that and [from then on] he has never stopped trying. He is a kind of monster, with a huge heart, in the way he plays. After so many years in football, I have seen loads of players with better skills but without his hunger for glory.’

Perhaps Suarez owes a little of his own success to Pirez’s daughter, who, however innocently, would provide updates on his social life. ‘He would go to the same parties as my daughter and she would say: “I saw Luisito last night.”

‘I would say: “Oh, did you?” because “Luisito” had to play the next day. It was not the best thing to do for him, but the day after he was there, ready to score more goals, with the same intensity as usual.

‘Only when they get to 16 or 17

He is a kind of monster, with a huge heart, in the way that he plays

years old do players realise they have to focus on their career and they start to stay at home more. One of my jobs was convincing him to follow the right path to be a professional.’

Once the work ethic has been installed, curbing his aggression was the next task. In a highly disputed incident, when he was 16, he was alleged to have headbutted a referee after being sent off in a crucial match for the Nacional Under-17 team in a title decider against Danubio.

What is established is that Suarez was outraged by the red card, approached the referee Luis Larrañaga, and that something unsavoury took place. But no contemporary report now exists and no one who was there appears willing to discuss it in full.

Perdomo said: ‘The incident was not as big as people have made out. There were some discussion between the players, the referee was involved in the scene and received some aggression from Luis – but unintentionally. I don’t know whether it was a punch or a spit, but it wasn’t that important.’

Bruno Fornaroli, the striker who kept him out the youth team in their teenage years, said: ‘I was next to him when he had that incident with the referee.

‘It is as if he lives the matches too much, his entire life goes on the pitch and he knows when he is wrong. That time we were in the dressing rooms and he knew he had gone too far.’

Pirez said: ‘He had that particular incident, received a ban and that was it. He’s never been a violent player.’

Almost all agree that meeting Sofia Balbi, who is now his wife, at the age of 15 was the catalyst for Suarez’s talent to be fulfilled. ‘For footballers, getting married too early is a common mistake,’ said Perdomo. ‘But Luis’s case was very special.

‘When he was in my team I remember seeing his then girlfriend Sofia watching the match. And they were only 14 or 15 years old. I’m very happy because they are still together.’

SUAREZ himself credits Sofia with helping him to fulfil his potential. ‘I wasn’t on the path I wanted to be on,’ said the Liverpool striker. ‘I was going out at night, I didn’t enjoy studying and I wasn’t dedicating myself to football. When I was a kid, there were some people around me who were a bad influence.

‘When I met my Sofia, I think it all changed. She was very important for me. She steered me back on to the path I wanted to be on. When I was single, I would go out at night, but then when I had a girlfriend, I would always go to her house, so I had more peace of mind.

‘I’m the one on the pitch, but if she hadn’t helped me change my life, I probably wouldn’t have made it. Also, I wasn’t playing at Nacional, some people told me to look for another club, but there were two people who told me to stay and helped me to get another chance.’

Now the whole of Uruguay waits, expecting him to be fit, if not for their first match of the World Cup against Costa Rica then certainly to face England, on June 19.

‘He is definitely on the way to being one of the most important players in Uruguay history, and there’s still more to come,’ said Perdomo. ‘With Suarez, Edinson Cavani and Diego Godin, Uruguay have as a good a team as I can ever remember.’

Pirez, the man who discovered him, is especially confident. ‘Defenders in England don’t know how to mark him, as he is so unpredictable. He watches the game and he always changes his tactics depending on the defender he has to face. It will be difficult for Uruguay to have a striker of his magnitude ever again.’

For all his troubles and the initial lack of application to the game, the early influences on Suarez’s life are proud of what he has achieved.

‘It has been very emotional watching him develop as he has,’ said Perdomo.

Now he’s ready to take on the world in Brazil.