Prior to the World Cup in Qatar, former Barcelona and Liverpool player Luis Suarez revealed on Tuesday that he had “a preliminary deal” to return to his first club Nacional for three months.
Suarez, a 35-year-old striker, left Atletico Madrid at the end of the previous campaign and is looking for a new team.
The all-time leading scorer for Uruguay, he will play in his fourth World Cup.
“First of all I would like to say thank you for the great affection shown to me and my family these last few days,” said Suarez in a video published on his social media accounts.
He claimed that as a result, “we have a preliminary agreement with the club and it has become hard to refuse the prospect of returning to play for Nacional.”
President of Nacional Jose Fuentes congratulated the supporters who had started a significant social media campaign to try and persuade Suarez to come back.
“We still need to adjust some little details… (but) he will surely arrive next week,” said Fuentes.
Suarez made his professional debut for Nacional in May 2005 at the age of 18.
He relocated to Groningen in the Netherlands after one whole season, then a year later he transferred to Ajax.
After three and a half seasons in England, he moved to Barcelona for a transfer fee of more than 80 million euros after catching Liverpool’s attention there.
His best years were spent in Catalonia, where he won four Spanish league championships, the Champions League in 2015, and La Liga once more in 2021 with Atletico.
He earned notoriety at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa when his last-gasp illegal goalline clearance in the quarter-finals against Ghana prevented the Black Stars from becoming the first ever African nation to reach the last four of the tournament.
Suarez was sent off for deliberate handball but Uruguay survived the subsequent spot-kick and then progressed on penalties.
Four years later in Brazil he disgraced himself by biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini, for which he received a record nine-match ban from world football governing body FIFA — it was the third time he had bitten an opposing player.
He is due to sign a three-month deal with Nacional to play in the Uruguayan Clausura competition while preparing for the World Cup in Qatar from February 21 to December 18.
“Details will be finalized in the next hours and we hope to reach the agreement we all desire and that we can all make the most of this new stage and see each other in the coming days,” added Suarez.
