Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz (born 24 January 1987) is a Uruguayan footballer who plays for Liverpool and the Uruguayan national team.

 

Suárez was born in Salto, Uruguay, and moved with his family to Montevideo, where he grew up with a single mother and six siblings. In 2005, he began his professional career at Nacional in Montevideo. In 2006, at age 19, he moved to the Netherlands to play for Groningen in the Eredivisie. Suárez transferred to Ajax in 2007 and made a major impact at the Amsterdam club. In 2008–09 he was named club Player of the Year and he led Ajax in scoring, although he was suspended for both fighting with a teammate and for getting seven yellow cards during the season.

The following year he was named the club captain, led the Eredivisie in scoring with 35 goals in 33 games and was named Dutch Footballer of the Year. He scored 49 goals in all competitions and Ajax won the KNVB Cup. In the 2010–11 season he scored his one hundredth Ajax goal and joined an elite group of players from the club, including Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten and Dennis Bergkamp, to do so. That season he was also involved in an incident in which he bit the shoulder of PSV player Otman Bakkal during a game. He was branded the "Cannibal of Ajax" and suspended seven games. During his suspension, in January 2011, he transferred to Liverpool for €26.5 million (£22.8 million).

During his partial season at Liverpool, Suárez helped the club move from twelfth in the league in mid-January to finish sixth. In February 2012 Suárez won his first trophy with Liverpool, as they won the League Cup.

 

Suárez represented Uruguay in the 2007 U-20 World Cup. In 2007 he scored in his senior team debut against Colombia but was also sent off for a second yellow card. In the 2010 World Cup he played an important role in Uruguay's fourth place finish and scored three goals. He was also involved in one of the tournament's most controversial incidents in the final minutes of extra time against Ghana; he prevented a goal with his hands to save his team from losing. He was given a red card, but the ensuing penalty kick was missed; Uruguay advanced after winning the shootout. He was strongly criticized for this action, but also lauded as a hero for sacrificing himself for his team.

In 2011, Suárez scored four goals for Uruguay as they won a record fifteenth Copa América, and he was named Player of the Tournament