Luis Suarez, who
transferred to Atletico Madrid last September has revealed the most
disappointing aspect of his exit from Barcelona - the club telling him that he
was too old to perform at the highest level.
Suarez who is now
second-highest goal scorer in La Liga with 16 goals (after Messi) has proven
Barcelona management wrong, by firing Atletico Madrid to the top of the La Liga
scoring chart.
“What really bothered me was when they told me that I
was old and that I could no longer play at a high level, be up to [the
task of fronting] a great team,” Suarez told France Football. “That’s what I did not like.”
Suarez said he lived up to expected standards at the
club, and blamed the club for signing players who were not on an elite level.
“Today, we can see that it is not
easy to play at Barca ... A lot of players who signed there did not have the
level that was expected of them. Me, I played for six years at Barca
maintaining a certain level and living up to what was expected of me.
“At Barca, circumstances have
changed, the club needed changes. And I accepted it. The only thing that
bothered me was the way [it happened]. I think I deserved some respect.
"It was a decision that I
could not prevent. I felt like I was no longer being counted on, so with my
pride I told myself that I was going to continue to show what I am worth. This
is why the idea of going to Atletico, a competitive team, appealed to me."
And yes, Suarez did score upwards
of 20 goals a season while at Barcelona, with his peak campaign being the 2015/16
season where he scored an outstanding 59 goals - the term where he scored more
goals than Messi and won the European Golden Shoe. He had a high goal output in
2016/17 - 36 and 31 in 2017/18. In his last two seasons at Barcelona, he scored
23 and 21 goals.
Comments
Post a Comment