Suarez living the dream

LUIS SUAREZ first decided that he had to go to Barcelona when he was 16. It took him longer than he would have liked – back then, he was desperate to get there straight away – but he finally arrived at 27, and on Thursday it was announced that he has signed a new contract that means he will almost certainly be there until he is 34 or 35 if, the Uruguayan admits, he is fit enough to go on.

He will stay there well beyond that too. When he arrived, he rented a house by the beach in Castelldefels, previously occupied by Michael Reiziger; now he and his family live in a home built specially for them, further up the hill.

“I am happy because I am where I want to be,” Suarez said.

It is where he has wanted to be since 2003, when Sofia, now his wife, said she was leaving. Sofia is two years younger than Luis, but she guided him, rescued him, even.

It is almost impossible to exaggerate her impact on his life. When she told him that her family were going to Barcelona because her father had lost his job in Montevideo, he was devastated.

“My world (was) falling apart,” he has written.

He thought it was the end. Sofia gave him a notebook in which she had written the lyrics to songs, and he sobbed when he read it. Lent the money by his then-agent, he briefly visited her that Christmas and made up his mind: He had to play in Europe.

And so it began, in the university town of Groningen, with two kids who didn’t know how to turn the cooker on: “McDonald’s was our friend.”

From there to Amsterdam, Liverpool and eventually Barcelona – Castelldefels, in fact, where Sofia had gone as a 14-year-old, and where her family still lives.

On one visit, Suarez had seen an open door, and together they had sneaked into the Camp Nou, Suarez egging Sofia on, without paying; now Barcelona pay him to play there. They will do so until 2021. Only Lionel Messi and Neymar earn more.

Suarez’s career has built steadily. This has been no sprint, yet the momentum has never let up. There’s something about “momentum” that defines his path and his play. – ESPN.