Happy Birthday Luis Suarez!

On this day in 1987 former Liverpool striker Luis Suarez was born. He made 133 appearances for the Reds in all competitions during his 3 years at LFC, scoring 82 goals in all competitions. Being born in Salto, Uruguay, he started his footballing career with Uruguayan side Nacional and helped them win the Primera Divison in 2005/06, inevitably he came to the attention of all European clubs and this led to a move to Netherlands where he played for Groningen, however he only had one season with the Dutch side before moving on to the Dutch giants Ajax who signed him for £7.5 million euros. He scored 81 goals in 110 appearances for Ajax, while this was happening he was also becoming a star on the international stage and his performances in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa caught the attention of the footballing media. Having made a successful start to the competition scoring 3 goals in 2 games for the South American side, he then went on to receive a lot of negative attention after he received a red card for deliberate hand ball in the box in a semi-final match against Ghana giving away a penalty (which was missed) and his celebrations for the penalty miss where looked upon as cruel. He signed for LFC on January transfer deadline day 2011 after the departure of fan favourite Fernando Torres to Chelsea and cost the club £22.8m, which looking back now is a bargain. He made his debut for the Reds on 2.02.11 against Stoke City and made a goal scoring start to his LFC career after a Kuyt flick set him through on goal where he rounded Begovic and sent the ball towards the empty Stoke goal, although Stoke defender Wilkinson got a touch to the ball on the line, he could only help it go in off the post. He was an instant hit at Anfield and made 13 Premier league appearances in the remained of the 2010/11 season scoring 4 goals including a wonderful strike at an impossible angle against Sunderland. He carried on his good form in the Copa America scoring 4 goals, including the opening goal against Paraguay in the final. Uruguay then went on to win the tournament that summer. His first full Premier league season for the Reds was far from uneventful, his goals to game ratio was great (17 goals from 39 appearances). However he did miss eight matches in the middle of the season after being found guilty of racially abusing Man Utd defended Patrice Evra. After competing in the 2012 Summer Olympics for Uruguay, he came back to Merseyside and signed a new long term contract with the club, fans were ecstatic and he repayed them by scoring 30 games from 44 appearances in all competitions that season. Suarez became the first Liverpool player to score thirty goals in a season since Fernando Torres did it in 2007/08 and he moved to fifty for the Reds when he netted against Tottenham in the March.The Uruguayan wasted no time in setting the tone for the season after serving his ten match ban, he missed the opening five games but played in all the remaining 33 scoring 31 goals which included hat tricks against West Brom, Cardiff city and four against Norwich at Anfield. He would also take his tally to 12 goals against the East Anglian club in 6 matches when he scored in the reverse fixture at Carrow road. He ended his Liverpool career with 82 goals in 133 matches and winning the Carling Cup in 2012, that being his only trophy during his spell with the Reds. In July of that summer saw Suarez leave Liverpool and head to Spanish giants Barcelona after the two clubs agreed a fee of around £65million. He ended a memorable season for the Catalonia side by scoring in the 3-1 win over Juventus in the champions league final and although they couldn’t retain the trophy the following season it was still a sensational season for Suarez as he scored 40 goals in 35 games in the league and 8 goals from 9 games in Europe. He recently hit the milestone of 100 La Liga goals after he scored in the 5-0 win over Real Betis at the weekend.Article by Lauren Black@LaurenBlack9For more Redmen TV content including podcasts, subscriber exclusives and three new shows every week subscribe now and get your first month for FREE bit.ly/RMTVjoin