Luis Suárez

Regarded as one of the best strikers in the world, Uruguayan football player Luis Suarez captained the national team at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, finishing ninth. He played in two World Cups, finishing fourth in 2010, and 12th in 2014, where Uruguay was eliminated in the round of 16, and he was banned for his next nine international matches for biting an Italian player. Suarez, the all-time goalscorer for the Uruguayan national team with 45 goals in 84 games, was the most recognizable player on the team who was usually in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Suarez started his professional football career as a youth player with Nacional (2005-2006), signed with Groningen for one season (2006-2007), and was transferred to Ajax where he scored his 100th Ajax goal (2007-2011). In 2011, he transferred to the English Premier League with Liverpool FC where he was the league’s top scorer with 31 goals, and was named the Player of the Year, FWA Footballer of the Year, and shared the Golden Shoe with Christiano Ronaldo. In 2014, he joined FC Barcelona in a move that made him one of the most expensive players in football history, playing alongside Lionel Messi and Neymar. Suarez won his second European Gold Shoe, for which he became the first player since 2009 to win both, other than Messi or Ronaldo.

Born in Salto, Uruguay, Suarez is the fourth of seven boys in a family where they knew poverty. He married Sofia Balbi in 2009, a girl he had known since he was 15, and they have a daughter and a son. His brother Paolo is a professional football player in El Salvador. In 2014, Suarez released his autobiography, titled “Crossing the Line – My Story”.