Gerard: The 2014 World Cup comes about, and that season you are the best player in the Premier League. I believe top scorer, too, in the qualifiers, with 11 goals. See? I prepared well!
Suárez: I beat Leo by one. By one!
Gerard: Oh yeah! hahaha! I’m gonna tell him! Then right before the World Cup you had a minor knee injury, in the meniscus I believe. You get an arthroscopy done. You barely make it back. You miss the first game against Costa Rica and the team actually ends up losing. And next you’re up against England and Italy, who are strong teams. You play against England, and you score both goals.
Tell me a little bit about how you felt, because you were coming from the injury, it was the English, and we’ve heard about how they treated you there. I am sure you wanted to beat them and get revenge on them, eh? How was all that?
Suárez: The truth is, it was a complicated moment because of the injury, because it just happened in the last game, Liverpool–Newcastle. We were in a close fight for the Premier. It was the last game. City had already won the championship, and we were …
It was a play against a defender and I feel a hit, that’s it. Afterward I was on vacation for a week. I remember I was here in Barcelona — and nothing, I went back to Uruguay to train, and I was feeling good. And on the second day I make a move, and I feel something in my knee. The doctor told me there was already an injury from a previous hit, and well, I think, I don’t remember if there was. It was on the 20th, so there was less than a month to the first game, and truth is I had that doubt of whether to get surgery and miss the World Cup.
However, in that moment, obviously my optimism, the support from my family…. I also had faith in the Uruguay trainer, Walter Ferreira, who told me, “Don’t worry, you will make it.” And, well, there was also doubt about whether the manager, El Maestro, if I got the surgery, if he was going to bring me to the World Cup knowing that there would be a period, the first two or three games that I wouldn’t play. They took me thinking that at the most I would play the third game, and if we went through. Knowing that it was difficult, and well, truth is, I worked a lot during that period to make it to the World Cup.
In the first game, I was on the bench, but hard-headed as I am, I remember I went to warm up on my own, hahaha, because I wanted to get into the game no matter what. And El Maestro, at no point did he consider the option of letting me in, but there I was warming up.
Gerard: He didn’t have you in mind.
Suárez: And truth is, I ended up pissed for not having played. We were losing in the debut and well… In the days leading up to the England game, I really killed myself to be able to make it to the game against them, especially since I had gone through a tough time. I remember the day of the injury, when the stuff about the possible surgery came out in the English headlines, there were, you know, the typical things: “Eh, hope the recovery goes slow” and so on, for me not to make the game. And well, playing against them and scoring two goals, truth is, for me, it was the most emotional moment I’ve lived in my career as a national team player, regardless of the titles and the previous World Cups — for everything, for what my recovery meant, and of the trainer who was with me.
Gerard: You celebrated the second goal with him, no?
Suárez: Yes. No, the first one. The first one, also because — a lot of people don’t know this — he was coming out of recovering from a lymph cancer. And after some time passes, six months after the World Cup, he passed away. And, well, he went with a so-and-so doctor’s note because I told him I wanted to go to the World Cup, but only if he went with me. It was a really beautiful story that I had with him, and, well, that’s why the first thing I did was to remember him in that moment in which he was present, and truth is, until this day, it’s a moment that I remember a lot.
Gerard: Then the Italy game comes about, where you win, but, well, there’s an incident with the biting of [Giorgio] Chiellini. From the moment it happens, until the end of the game, are you already thinking about what’s going to happen to you, because you know ... from previous occasions. Or is it once the game ends, you think, “Oof, I think I’ve messed up?”
Suárez: After that — after I did it — I realized immediately. We score our goal a few minutes after, I think it’s about 10 minutes after when [Diego] Godín scores, and I don’t celebrate it as much as I usually would — the way everyone else celebrated it — because I was already thinking about the aftermath.
We advance, and I think we went to thank the Uruguayan fans. Everyone is screaming, celebrating, because obviously we had won against the two Europeans, qualifying and all, it had been spectacular, and I already felt everything. I enter the locker room and the first thing I do was to speak with my wife, who was there with the kids and all. And she asks me, asked me what I had done. And obviously, I always, initially I didn’t want to accept reality — negating, crying, and all — and, well, after it all, some feelings in the locker room were of happiness, but also everyone checking their phones and all for what was to come. And, well, the truth is, it was a very, very painful moment for me, for the team, and obviously, what happened, it affects you. It hurts you and all that.
Gerard: When did you start talks with Barcelona about coming here? That summer, before the World Cup?
Suárez: No, it was right then — there at the World Cup. It was during the World Cup period.
Gerard: And during any moment, did it cross your mind that because of it the Barcelona deal could fall through?
Suárez: Yes, yes. Because it was everything — in addition to thinking about the World Cup, and being able to fulfill my dream to come here to Barça — everything had gone overboard for me. And I think in the few days after that — before they kicked me out of the World Cup — that’s when I spoke with Zubi [Andoni Zubizarreta Urreta], and the president, and they told me to be calm because Barça still wanted me and … and I have no problem saying it, I cried. Because, they were accepting, and me going through what I did in that moment, and with the shit I had caused, it was complicated to trust in me. Truth is, Barça has been so good to me, and I will always be very grateful for that.
Gerard: The truth is, I know very few teammates who are as noble and good people as you are. But I am telling you now, and I am serious — you know the relationship we have — but when we react on the playing field, people don’t know that our hearts are pumping at a thousand beats per minute. It’s just that these are things that happen, and I think your behavior at Barça from the moment you arrived, not only in the locker room — which I have told you, I think you are one of the nicest people I have met in a locker room — but also on the playing field, it’s admirable. So, Gordo, you should know it’s an honor to have you here.
Suárez: It’s the first time you give me goosebumps … Hahaha! You always have to try to remain the same way, no? Knowing where you’re coming from, to Barça, as we always said, you said it — that with Ney and Leo being here, it was complicated for me to come here, be well liked, be at that level, and trying to do it as good as possible, as much inside as outside the locker room.
Gerard: I will throw out a statistic that I was analyzing. You always like it when I throw out statistics! But since you made your debut in the World Cup, every time you’ve been on the playing field, Uruguay never lost. And the three times you didn’t play, Uruguay has lost, which is in the semifinal of the 2010 World Cup, against Costa Rica before that, and eventually the time against Colombia when Uruguay was eliminated when all this happens. So, don’t get injured, don’t get suspended, and perhaps you will win the 2018 World Cup! What are your thoughts on it? How do you view the 2018 World Cup?
Suárez: Truth is, there are many strong teams today, and it’s very complicated. It will be very even, and well, there will always be one surprise team of which you have to be careful with everything, no? I don’t know which one it will be out all of them, but there will be many teams that will be there.
Gerard: Do you see any favorite? Any team that’s more of a favorite than the others, or is it a group of teams, of which anyone can win?
Suárez: Favorite … Uruguay! Hahaha!
Gerard: Damn, you like to add some pressure, eh? Hahaha!
Suárez: Nah, I think there are many. Obviously, the European teams: Germany, for being the last champion. Spain is playing at an amazing level. France I like a lot — the players they have, although today the majority are young, but France is France. And then obviously Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.
Gerard: And a question to wrap up: Do we win anything with Barça this year or what?
Suárez: Yes, yes, for sure!
Gerard: Yeah? Leo told me the same thing, so now I am super excited. Hahaha! Well, thank you so much, truthfully, truthfully.
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