In an interview with France Football magazine, the striker did not spare Barça and its current coach, Ronald Koeman, who told him that he did not have it.
Uruguayan Luis Suárez said he was very annoyed by the way Barcelona told him he didn’t have it, that he had found a club at Atlético de Madrid at the height of his ambition and that pride had led him to show that he was still among the best in the world. .
“Barcelona needed changes, I accept that, but the ways bothered me, I always tried to be at the club level, to give my best. It’s not easy to spend six years in Barcelona and be at the level of “I think I deserved some respect in the way he told me I didn’t love anymore. With my pride, I said I wanted to show that I still deserve it,” he said in an interview. published on Tuesday by France Football magazine.
The striker did not save the criticism of Barçai and his current coach, Ronald Koeman, who told him she didn’t count on him.
“It bothered me that they told me that I was old and that I could no longer play at the highest level, to be at the level of a great team. That disgusted me. If I hadn’t done anything in a club like Barça for I would have been Of course, I scored over 20 goals every year. I always had good statistics, behind Leo “Messi, he said.
He acknowledged that changing the city was difficult for his family, for his children who had moved away from their friends, but considered it essential because “I would not be happy in a place where they do not love you.”
“It’s important to feel that you have the strength to overcome difficult moments. This has always been one of my characteristics: I never lower my arms, even when I go through difficult times. It was this character that determined me to get to this. team, fighting for things. important, “he commented.
“One of the motivations was to show that you can still count on me. It’s a matter of self-love. After all those years spent at Barça, I wanted to show that I can be useful at the highest level, in the Spanish elite. , “he added.
Suárez dismantled the idea that in Atletico Madrid he trains more than in Barcelona, although he acknowledged that the intensity may be higher, but concentrated in less time.
He also showed that in the rojiblanco club he plays in a position where he has more freedom of movement and that in the coach, the Argentine Diego Simeone, found a technician who is confident in his quality, as he had with Luis Enrique Barça.
“What motivates me is to be in a club that hasn’t won the league in a long time (2014) and that aspires to do so. But also a club that has the same desire as me to win the Champions League (it was a finalist in 1974, 2014 and 2016). The competitive level of this club is incredible and corresponds to mine, my pride and my will to continue to win, even though I am 34 years old, “he said.
Suarez He wanted to show that his performance did not only respond to the fact that he was in a club like Barça and with a teammate like Lionel Messi.
“In recent years they have said that it was easy to score when you play with Messi. Now I continue to score and I feel that what I do is given more value. I know what I am worth. Not only did I score because I played with the best player in the world in a club like Barça. Also because of my quality “, he commented.
The Uruguayan admitted that he longs for his Argentine friend, “who was a friend beyond the player” and he misses “conversations, not only about football, but also about life”.
When asked who he misses the most, if Barcelona MESS answer: “What is certain is not the coach, who said he is happy with the decision to let me go. Maybe what Leo longs for is to have a friend every day.”