Which Luis Suarez was the best Luis Suarez?

If you were to walk down the street today and ask someone who Luis Suarez is they would probably tell you, why he’s a famous footballer who played for Barcelona. But here’s the thing, if you did the same 70 years ago, the answer would be the exact same one. If you did the same thing 450 years ago in the Apulia region of Italy, they would tell you that he’s the bishop of Dragonara, but that’s beside the point. The point is there are too many Luis Suarezez out there, but worry not, I am here to tell you which ones are the best at football, because these are the things everyone should know about.

We start with the player who comes in last on our list, Luis Suarez. Which one? Luis Fernando Suárez. A Colombian defender who spent his whole career in his native country in the 80s and 90s.

The club he spent most of his playing time at, Atlético Nacional is also one of Colombia’s best teams but sadly for Suarez he did not win any domestic silverware with them. The high point of his career was the 1989 Copa Libertadores that Atletico Nacional won against Paraguayan giants Olimpia. He did not play any minutes in the two legged final and it would be after his retirement that his shining moment would come. After winning the league with Atletico Nacional in 1999 he bounced around a few Colombian clubs before he was named Ecuador manager in 2004.

Two years later he achieved Ecuador’s best ever performance at a FIFA World Cup when the team beat Poland and Costa Rica to finish second to hosts Germany in their group. In the round of 16 England, as usual, struggled against the lower ranked team but managed to win through a set piece goal. Our sixth placed Suarez is still active as a manager in his native Colombia.

No5. Luis Suarez, the one who we saw at the most recent world cup.

Luis Javier Suárez Charris is one of two active players on this list, although the other one runs like every step hurts so that is bound to change any day now. Starting out in 2015 with his hometown club Leones, his first taste of European football came at Granada’s B side before Watford signed him in 2017. He didn’t play a single game the Hornets, which let’s be honest might have been the best thing to happen to him at the time, as he was loaned out for the next three seasons. After finding regular game time at Granada and struggling at Marseille he joined Almeria in 2023. His 33 goals in 56 games prompted Sporting to fork out 25 million Euros for him and their confidence has been repaid in droves as he has scored 28 times in 32 appearances since last year. With such little game time in the early part of his career he will probably be able to play well into his 30s and is going to be the perfect player for you to sign on Football Manager 2030 when your starting striker tears his ACL.

No4. Luis Suarez, Luis Oswaldo Suárez Cáceres to be more precise. He was a Peruvian goalkeeper whose career spanned two decades form 1945 to 1963, all of them spent in Peru.

Widely regarded as one of Peru's best goalkeepers he won three league titles during the early 50s and was the starting goalkeeper for his country for nearly a decade. What makes his career most interesting however is that he managed all this whilst gaining a medical degree from Lima University. He would specialize as a gynecologist and after his retirement would go back to hospital work. Probably tired of wearing gloves for every single job he had he also dabbled in politics becoming mayor of the San Juan de Lurigancho district of Lima.

No3. You guessed it, it’s Luis Suarez, specifically Luis Eduardo Suárez.

Born in Buenos Aires he made his debut with Banfield in 1954 and much like Micah Richards burst onto the scene scoring 68 goals in 88 games. This drew the eye of giants Independiente who signed him in 1961. It was at Independiente where he would spend the best three years of his career, winning the league in in 1963, and the Copa Libertadores in 1964 and 1965. He started all the final games and helped send his team trhough to the 1964 final, scoring an 89th minute winner against Santos.

Before we get to the top 2 spots, occupied by Luis Suarez and Luis Suarez respectively, I need to tell you that I have spoken to a witch and everyone of you that reads this article will become as good at football as Luis Suarez, trouble is, we don’t know which Luis Suarez we named when we made the spell since they all have the same name. For all we know you might gain the footballing skills of Luis Suárez Fernández, a Spanish historian.

Right, on to no2 then, where we find Luis Suarez, the one who played for Barcelona. Oh, is that too vague? The one who played for Barcelona and Liverpool.

Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz also known as El Pistolero is one of the most prolific strikers of the generation that has just passed and one of the best Uruguayan players of all time. His breakthrough came at Ajax during the end of the 2000s, which prompted a move to Liverpool. That move came during a seven match suspension for his first biting incident and the fact that he had more than one instance where he bit an opposition player is just insane to me. Despite a somewhat slow start to life in England he quickly became a fan favorite amongst the Liverpool supporters who rallied around him after he racially abused Partrice Evra. One Copa America and bite on Branislav Ivanovic later Suarez found himself on his way to breaking the 30 goal record mark in the 2013-14 season, which saw Liverpool top the Premier League table. In the end the long awaited title just sort of slipped away and Suarez joined Barcelona, where the 2015 Champions League would be his crowning achievement. After Barca deemed him surplus to requirements he helped Atletico win the 2021 La Liga title and  he is currently getting his bag in Miami. He might need money for some expensive dental work after he bit Chiellini during a 2014 World Cup match. After the incident Suarez was seen holding on to his chompers and he hasn’t bit anyone since suggesting that Chiellini’s durability finally put an end to his larping as a hyena.

And now for no1, the other Luis Suarez who played for Barcelona, Luis Suárez Miramontes.

He was by all accounts a much classier player than the bity one and whilst modern Suarez is one of the best strikers of his generation OG Suarez is one of the best midfielders of all time. A native of A Coruña he joined Deportivo at 14 and made his debut at 18. In just one season he became the club’s regular starter which prompted a move to Barcelona. With several managers coming and going at the Catalan club and Suarez being considered too physically frail to impose himself on the first team, Helenio Herrera’s arrival in 1958 unlocked his true potential. Two La Liga titles followed in 1959 and 1960, as well as the 1960 Inter Cities Fairs Cup. His performances for the first Barca super squad that included Ladislao Kubala, Zoltán Czibor and Sándor Kocsis saw him earn the 1960 Ballon D’or, being the first Spanish player to ever win it and to date the only male Spanish player to ever win it. However it was not all rosy since a perceived rivalry with fan favorite Kubala caused him to be booed by his own supporters. After Herrera left and the club lost the 1961 European Cup final against Benfica, Suarez followed his former manager to Inter where he became the world’s most expensive player. His sale helped Barcelona repay the costs for the Camp Nou but it also meant that the club wouldn’t win another trophy for 14 years. In Milan Herrera moved Suarez to a role akin to a modern deep lying playmaker and with that move his Grande Inter team won three Serie A titles and two consecutive European Cups in 1964 and 1965 just as his Argentinian counterpart from the no3 spot was winning the 64 and 65 Libertadores. The two would meet in the 1964 Intercontinental Cup where the Inter Suarez triumphed over the Independiente Suarez. That same year he helped Spain win their first ever trophy in the 1964 European Championship. Barcelona fans, probably bitter and resentful booed him again during a friendly between the two clubs in 1965. Undetterred he continued to run Inter’s midfield and his absence in the 1967 European Cup final played a huge part in Inter’s defeat to Celtic. With his performances for Inter declining he moved to Sampdoria in 1970 helping them avoid relegation and retired in 1973. After more than 40 years in manager, the best Luis Suarez passed away in 2023 at the age of 88.