Luis Suarez fights back tears in emotional retirement announcement (original) (raw)

Former Liverpool star Luis Suarez officially announced his retirement from international football on Monday after achieving nearly two decades of success with La Celeste

Suarez announced his international retirement in an emotional address on Monday

Luis Suarez announced that he will retire from the Uruguay national team after this week's international break in a teary-eyed press conference on Monday.

The former Premier League great, now playing for Inter Miami, most recently helped La Celeste to the Copa America semifinals and will feature for the final time in Uruguay's World Cup Qualifier against Paraguay.

“I’ve been thinking about this and analysing this. I believe this is the right time,” Suarez said, his voice cracking as he became emotional announcing his decision. “I want to be relaxed when I play my last game with the national team.

"I’ll be just as excited to play as I was in 2007 when I played for my national team for the first time. That 19-year-old kid is now a veteran player, an older player - however you want to call it - with an incredible history with the national team will give his life for the team on Friday.”

The 37-year-old is well into the twilight of a prolific striking career, in which he has netted 495 goals across nearly 800 appearances. This success played a crucial role in helping Uruguay rekindle its historic football prowess.

Suarez steps away as La Celeste's all-time leading scorer with 69 goals, while his 142 caps rank second behind contemporary Diego Godin. As he notes, Suarez broke into the Uruguayan first team at just 19 years old, shortly after making his European move to join Dutch side Groningen, in a debut that showcased his famously incendiary nature, dismissed in the 85th minute after receiving a second yellow card for dissent.

Suarez continued to dominate the Eredivisie after making a move to Amsterdam giants Ajax and was called up to the 2010 World Cup squad, where he provided the tournament's most controversial moment in a quarterfinal thriller against Ghana.

Deep into extra time, Dominic Adiyiah directed a goal-mouth scramble on target, sure to ripple the net before Suarez made the save with a blatant handball. The Uruguayan striker was immediately assessed a red card, but Ghana would miss the ensuing spot kick and fall short in the penalty shootout, with Suarez unapologetic about his transgression.

Suarez was famously given a red card for a hand ball in the 2010 World Cup (

Image:

Getty Images)

“Mine is the real 'Hand Of God',” he famously said. “I made the save of the tournament. Sometimes in training I play goalkeeper so it was worth it.” Suarez was suspended for the following game, a 3-2 defeat against the Netherlands.

By the time the 2014 World Cup returned to Brazil, where Uruguay had become the competition's first two-time champions in 1950, Suarez had made his to Liverpool and nearly helped the Reds capture their first Premier League title with 43 goal contributions.

La Celeste advanced from a challenging group that included Italy and England but controversy continued to linger over Suarez, who was retroactively given a four-month ban from football after biting the shoulder of Giorgio Chiellini.

Uruguay failed to advance out of the group stage in the 2018 World Cup, but Suarez earned his second top-3 international finish this summer as his squad bested Canada in the Copa America third-place game.