A YEAR is a long time in football, but not if your name is Luis Alberto Suarez, it seems.
This time 12 months ago, the Uruguayan forward was plotting his bid to take the World Cup by storm.
He managed it, too, by fair means and foul. He may have gathered international notoriety with a controversial goal-line handball, but his performances lit up South Africa and helped take his country to the semi-finals, where they lost narrowly to Holland.
Fast forward a year, and Suarez is once more preparing himself for a major international tournament – the Copa America in Argentina, which begins next month.
In normal circumstances, with a normal footballer, Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish could be forgiven for being less than delighted by this. The summer break is a Premier League manager’s haven; a chance for him to remould his squad, and for his players to recharge their batteries, after a season of sweat and toil domestically.
Suarez will not get that chance. His World Cup ended on July 10 of last year, as Uruguay were beaten by Germany in the third/fourth place play-off. Two weeks later he was back in competitive action for Ajax, picking up a red card in their defeat to FC Twente in the Johan Cruijff Schaal (the Dutch version of the Community Shield).
A full season later, he is still going strong. Assuming Uruguay qualify from their Copa America group – and, considering they have been drawn alongside Chile, Mexico and Peru, it is a distinct possibility – then the earliest Suarez will finish his campaign will be July 16. Should they reach the final, he will head back to Europe on July 24. So much for a summer break.
Dalglish admitted earlier this year that Suarez’s forthcoming schedule was a nuisance, especially with the Reds heading on a lucrative pre-season tour of the far East, but admitted it was a price worth paying to see the 24-year-old in a Liverpool shirt.
Nonetheless, with Suarez having cost the Reds £22.8m back in January, Dalglish will be watching intently, and through nervous eyes, as the Uruguayan takes on South America’s finest.
His all-action style has endeared him to Anfield supporters since that big money switch, but Reds fans are well aware that sustaining such a high level of intensity is difficult. They saw Fernando Torres, for example, buckle physically after a succession of demanding summers with Spain.
Suarez, though, is a different animal. Only once has he made less than 35 appearances in a season, and that was in his maiden year as a professional with Nacional. The level with which he finished the campaign at Anfield suggests that, like most tee-totals, hangovers really aren’t his thing.
“Early on in my football career I learned that you never give up,” he tells LFC Weekly this week.
“You never give up on a ball as a lost cause, you fight for everything, you never drop your head for one minute and you keep trying until the last whistle.
“And if you know that skill-wise or technique-wise it’s not your day and things aren’t quite coming off for you, it just means that you try even harder, you close people down and you press and you get tackles in. I think it’s important to have that spirit and that never-say-die attitude.”
It is that never-say-die attitude, as much as the flicks, tricks and majestic touches, which has so endeared him to Liverpool supporters.
Suarez may only have made 13 appearances in a red shirt, but already his is the song which chimes loudest on the Kop.
“It’s good that from those early stages I have managed to create a good impression with the fans,” he adds.
“I think that when you go to a new club everyone’s watching you and waiting, thinking: ‘He’s come here for all this money, what sort of impression is he going to make?’ That’s the kind of feeling I got when I came to the club for the first time.
“But I just get on with my job and try and show what I can do and show that I want to play for the club and that I want to work hard.
“I always think that putting in hard work helps you win the fans over but it’s nice that it has come to fruition.”
Suarez admits to feeling some surprise at the speed with which he has settled on Merseyside. The Premier League can be an unforgiving arena for foreign imports, but four goals and five assists in 13 games suggests the ex-Groningen striker has hit the ground running in England.
“I think I have settled in well, which is very, very important” he adds.
“Settling into a new team was always the most important thing about coming here.
“I think I have done that and it’s happened a lot quicker than I thought it would. It’s hard when you come to a new team for the first time as there are lots of changes that you’ve got to adapt to but it’s gone well – and from the very first game really. I am very, very happy to be here.”
Liverpool fans would certainly share that opinion.
And if Suarez can take South America by storm as he has done Merseyside, then expect Uruguayan fans to be singing Depeche Mode tunes by the end of the summer.
