Luis Suarez announces his retirement from international football
Luis Suarez has announced he will retire from international football after Uruguay’s World Cup qualifier versus Paraguay on Friday.
Luis Suarez is Uruguay’s all-time leading goalscorer, having netted 69 times in 142 appearances, with only Diego Godin (161) winning more caps for La Celeste.
The striker helped Uruguay reach the semi-finals of the 2010 World Cup and win their 15th Copa America title in 2011, being named Player of the Tournament as he scored four goals including the opener in the final – a 3-0 victory over Paraguay.
Suarez will face the same opponents in his final international match on Saturday as Marcelo Bielsa’s team look to build on a return of 13 points from their first six games in the CONMEBOL World Cup qualification process.
“I’ve been thinking about this and analysing this. I believe this is the right time,” a tearful Luis Suarez told reporters on Monday.
“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, that will give his life for the team.”
Suarez was memorably sent off for a handball on the goal line to deny Ghana a winning goal as La Celeste won the teams’ 2010 World Cup quarter-final on penalties, while he missed the 2015 Copa America after receiving a nine-match ban for biting Giorgio Chiellini at the 2014 World Cup.
“We did go through difficult moments. There were many,” he added. “Personally, it was worse for me after my massive mistake in 2014.
“But there’s nothing that I would reproach.”
The 37-year-old played a limited role as Uruguay took the bronze medal at this year’s Copa, making four substitute appearances with Darwin Nunez predominantly leading the line.
Luis Suarez did, however, net a stoppage-time equaliser to take the third-place play-off versus Canada to penalties, also converting from the spot as Uruguay triumphed 4-3 in the subsequent shoot-out.
He has 16 goals in 20 MLS outings for Inter Miami this year, with only Christian Benteke and Cristian Arango (17 each) ahead of him in the Golden Boot race.
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