INQUISITR.COM / Sports

Will Luis Suarez Bite Again? Striker Returns On International Duty After Biting Ban

By Nicholas Kitonyi
Published on: 12:15 PST, Mar 6, 2016

Luis Suarez is currently in the form of his life at Barcelona. The Uruguayan striker has scored more than 40 goals in all competitions already, and he is on course to witnessing his best season ever as a professional footballer. Luis Suarez was on the scoresheet on Sunday in the match against Eibar, which Barcelona won 4-0. This win took Barcelona eight points clear of second-placed Atletico Madrid and 12 points ahead of league rivals Real Madrid.

This season, Luis Suarez had already netted 25 goals from his 26 La Liga appearances before the game against Eibar while managing seven goals in cup competitions. He had also managed to dispatch 12 in Europe and six more in other matches such as the Club World Cup. Luis Suarez’s game is not just about scoring goals, the striker has also assisted 14 goals in 37 games. His goals have been crucial to the Barcelona team in a period that has seen the front three of Messi, Suarez, and Neymar, or simply “the MSN” score 100 goals already.

Based on the current run-rate, Luis Suarez and his two front teammates could easily go on to break the record of 122 goals they set during the 2014/2015 season. At this point last season, Messi, Suarez, and Neymar had netted a combined total of 75 goals.

Luis Suarez has been outside the National team selection since June 2014, when he was banned by FIFA for biting Giorgio Chiellini of Italy during a group stage World Cup match in Brazil. Since then, Uruguay has played in the South American continental cup competition, the Copa America, in which they managed to reach the quarter-finals, while they remain second in the qualification for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, behind Equador.

However, after completing his biting ban, Luis Suarez has now been recalled to the national side and is scheduled to make his return in the next World Cup 2018 qualifier match for Uruguay, which will be played late this month. His return will be a major boost for Uruguay especially given the country’s dismal performance in the Copa America 2015 competition, which they failed to advance past the quarter-finals. In the competition, Uruguay won just one match, drew one, and lost two, scoring only two goals in four matches.

Luis Suarez described the biting incident on Chiellini as an accident that resulted in him hurting his teeth. However, this was viewed as a plot to pledge his innocence rather than the truth. Later in 2014, when Luis Suarez published his book, Suarez described the biting incident as a moment in the match when the adrenalin kicked in and the brain failed to keep up. “The adrenaline levels in a game can be so high; the pulse is racing and sometimes the brain doesn’t keep up,” Suarez wrote.

“The pressure mounts and there is no release valve. In 2010 (the first biting incident), I was frustrated because we were drawing what was a very important game, and we were on a bad run. I wanted to do everything right that day, and it felt as though I was doing everything wrong.

Nonetheless, it remains to be seen whether or not Luis Suarez has been able to exorcise his demons, as a lot depends on it as far as his career at Barcelona is concerned. The Mirror reported in 2014 that Suarez would lose close to $5 million of his salary if he bites again, and he also promised Barcelona fans that he wouldn’t repeat the biting theatrics.

Therefore, a repeat of the same would not only result in Luis Suarez losing a big chunk of his salary, but he could also find it very difficult to deal with the fans in the stadium and on the streets. Luis Suarez is a great talent, but one that is also not short of controversies.

[Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images]

Share this article: Will Luis Suarez Bite Again? Striker Returns On International Duty After Biting Ban
barcelona fifa
More from Inquisitr