“They doubted me because of my age,” Luis Suarez began. “They talked about the knee. They said I was fat, and that football in Brazil was very intense. These are beautiful challenges.” At which point in his farewell speech to supporters of Gremio of Porto Alegre, Suarez referred to himself in the third person: “It shows that Luis Suarez loves this profession, loves this work.”
Suarez was surveying the fine body of work he has just completed at the age of 36. Safe to report that the Uruguayan spent 2023 making a similar scale of impact on Brazilian football as he did on the Dutch, English and Spanish leagues before, although perhaps with less of the controversy that tended to follow the younger version of Suarez at Ajax and Liverpool.
His goal in the victory over Vasco da Gama on Sunday was his 27th for Gremio, in his 53rd match. Add to that his 17 assists and the high number of replica Suarez jerseys Gremio have retailed since last January, and he departs as a hero.
Being Suarez, whose game has always been played with a bristling aggression and whose career timeline includes three different sanctions for biting opponents, there were also 11 bookings during the Gremio journey.
But there was a decent legacy. The club, thanks in large part to their celebrated goalscorer, have qualified for the next Copa Libertadores, South America’s equivalent of the Champions League.
Suarez will not be leading that adventure, but his “love of the profession, the work” is set to take him to one more “beautiful challenge” in club football, on a new continent but an environment that would seem very familiar indeed.
Inter Miami of Major League Soccer hope, in the January transfer window, to unveil Suarez as the fourth musketeer in their collection of former Barcelona players.
For Suarez, the most persuasive of those is Lionel Messi, with whom he struck up a close and lasting friendship – as did their respective families – when the pair were thrillingly effective striking partners and Champions League winners together at Barca. The breaking up of their tandem, in the tumultuous summer of 2020 when Suarez was allowed to leave for Atletico Madrid, was painful for both.
Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, who moved to Florida in the summer directly from Barca, would be pleased to see Suarez, too. Inter Miami’s coach Gerardo Martino, a former Barcelona manager whose one-year term in Catalonia ended just as Suarez joined from Liverpool, would welcome the additional firepower.
A heightened dependence on Messi, who made a huge impression immediately after joining Inter Miami in the summer, having left Paris Saint-Germain, developed quickly at the Florida club. Messi inspired a trophy success – in the Leagues Cup – within his first month in America, but injury limited his MLS appearances and Inter Miami failed to reach the end-of-season play-offs.
There are some bureaucratic issues to resolve for the Suarez contract to be agreed, but the player is enthusiastic and regards a season alongside his old friends in the MLS as a far more appealing option to retirement.
He will turn 37 in January and treats his chronic knee problems with regular painkilling medication, but the competitive desire remains as fierce as it was in the days when he moved more freely and swiftly past defenders.
As Barcelona found, declaring Suarez to be past his sell-by date is to heighten his motivation. When he departed Camp Nou after six years there he felt wronged by the club. He responded by spearheading Atletico to the Spanish title.
Arriving at Gremio, after a short spell at Nacional in Uruguay, there were mean-spirited observations about what shape he was in. He finished as third highest goalscorer in Brazil’s Serie A and as top provider of assists.
Back in the spring, when Marcelo Bielsa took over as manager of the Uruguay national team, the process of rejuvenation began without Suarez and his fellow veteran Edinson Cavani.
Yet last month, attentive to Suarez’s form at Gremio, Bielsa recalled the old warrior for his 138th cap. “I’m happy to help however I can,” Suarez said, with an eye on next year’s Copa America, which will be staged in the US.
The draw for the group stage for that event takes place on Thursday, in Miami, the city where the so-called ‘Messi Effect’ – the increased attention that Messi’s decision to move to MLS in the summer has drawn to football in the States – is concentrated.
The Copa America wants to catch some of that momentum and have organised that Messi’s Argentina play their last group game in Miami. If by next June, Suarez has captured the US imagination as he did Brazilian football’s, Uruguay will have gained an extra local following, too.
Dubai World Cup nominations
UAE: Thunder Snow/Saeed bin Suroor (trainer), North America/Satish Seemar, Drafted/Doug Watson, New Trails/Ahmad bin Harmash, Capezzano, Gronkowski, Axelrod, all trained by Salem bin Ghadayer
USA: Seeking The Soul/Dallas Stewart, Imperial Hunt/Luis Carvajal Jr, Audible/Todd Pletcher, Roy H/Peter Miller, Yoshida/William Mott, Promises Fulfilled/Dale Romans, Gunnevera/Antonio Sano, XY Jet/Jorge Navarro, Pavel/Doug O’Neill, Switzerland/Steve Asmussen.
Japan: Matera Sky/Hideyuki Mori, KT Brace/Haruki Sugiyama. Bahrain: Nine Below Zero/Fawzi Nass. Ireland: Tato Key/David Marnane. Hong Kong: Fight Hero/Me Tsui. South Korea: Dolkong/Simon Foster.
How it works
Each player begins with one of the great empires of history, from Julius Caesar's Rome to Ramses of Egypt, spread over Europe and the Middle East.
Round by round, the player expands their empire. The more land they have, the more money they can take from their coffers for each go.
As unruled land and soldiers are acquired, players must feed them. When a player comes up against land held by another army, they can choose to battle for supremacy.
A dice-based battle system is used and players can get the edge on their enemy with by deploying a renowned hero on the battlefield.
Players that lose battles and land will find their coffers dwindle and troops go hungry. The end goal? Global domination of course.
Reputation
Taylor Swift
(Big Machine Records)
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Set-jetting on the Emerald Isle
Other shows filmed in Ireland include: Vikings (County Wicklow), The Fall (Belfast), Line of Duty (Belfast), Penny Dreadful (Dublin), Ripper Street (Dublin), Krypton (Belfast)
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
FIGHT%20CARD
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The years Ramadan fell in May
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Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.
Stree
Producer: Maddock Films, Jio Movies
Director: Amar Kaushik
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee
Rating: 3.5
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
What's in the deal?
Agreement aims to boost trade by £25.5bn a year in the long run, compared with a total of £42.6bn in 2024
India will slash levies on medical devices, machinery, cosmetics, soft drinks and lamb.
India will also cut automotive tariffs to 10% under a quota from over 100% currently.
Indian employees in the UK will receive three years exemption from social security payments
India expects 99% of exports to benefit from zero duty, raising opportunities for textiles, marine products, footwear and jewellery
Janet Yellen's Firsts
- In 2014, she became the first woman to lead the US Federal Reserve
- In 1999, she became the first female chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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