Luis Suarez has revealed he was near becoming a member of Actual Madrid earlier than transferring to Barcelona in 2014 – and the way Arsenal have been key to the proposed switch.
Suarez left Liverpool for Barcelona after the 2014 World Cup for a payment of round £65 million, however the Catalans’ fierce rivals had beforehand been strongly linked and the Uruguayan has admitted their curiosity was real.
“Earlier than the 2014 World Cup, Actual Madrid wished me as they wished to promote [Karim] Benzema to Arsenal. Barcelona on the time was [also] and Luis Enrique was urgent,” Suarez informed Del Sol FM in an interview.
“The chunk case occurred and Barcelona continued to need to signal me regardless of the punishment. I’ll all the time be thankful for that.”
Benzema had Arsenal for a while and at that time, Madrid have been much less certain of their French ahead, who would go on to grow to be a legend on the Santiago Bernabeu.
And the chunk case Suarez is referring to is the incident on the 2014 World Cup, when the Uruguayan bit Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini.
That earned the previous Liverpool striker a four-month ban from soccer and delay plenty of golf equipment, together with Actual Madrid.
Los Blancos’ president Florentino Perez later claimed Madrid had by no means been fascinated with signing the Uruguayan.
Each Suarez and Benzema ended up doing fairly effectively out of the state of affairs, with the Uruguayan successful a treble at Barcelona and the Frenchman taking part in an vital half in Madrid’s three successive Champions League crowns after that.
Suarez, with 195 targets, is Barça’s third-highest scorer in historical past. Benzema, with 354 in his 14 seasons on the Santiago Bernabeu, is second in Actual Madrid’s all-time checklist.
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