French football club Marseille who also goes by the name Olympique de Marseille has just recruited Luis Suarez, an attacker who has already been advised, in the middle of a match, to do yoga to calm down. He is fiery, he is ambitious, he is hot-headed, and passionate! This is an article explaining the Colombian Luis Suarez’s life and career broken down into 7 simple facts! 

Luis Suarez: Who Is The Colombian Playing For The French Marseille? (7 Facts) 

In July 2022, Olympique de Marseille registered its first offensive recruit of the summer. A certain Luis Suarez, a 24-year-old Colombian, arrives near La Canebière to reinforce Igor Tudor’s attack. But who is the former Granada player, best known for having a very popular namesake in the football sphere? Let’s explore! 

1. He is often confused with the other Luis Suarez:

When some OM fans saw their favorite team’s tweet in July 2022 about the signing of a certain striker named Luis Suarez, they must have read the tweet several times before realizing the image that this one was not Uruguayan, but of the Colombian. 

And yes, the Uruguayan man with 436 career goals, passed by Ajax, Liverpool, Barcelona or Atlético Madrid, did not sign for Marseille, but it is his namesake, a 24-year-old Colombian, who lands in the south of France to play for OM. 

2. Speaking of the other Luis Suarez, the Colombian almost replaced him:

In February 2020, while Barça was bothered by the injury of their striker Luis Suarez, as well as that of Ousmane Dembélé, the Catalan club was looking for a striker to back up Lionel Messi. Having a medical joker to sign a player from another Spanish club despite the end of the transfer window, due to Suarez’s injury, the FC Barcelona club is therefore interested in the striker, then in Real Zaragoza, towards a certain Luis Suarez from Colombia. 

However, still, in the second division and belonging to Watford at the time, the Colombian striker was not authorized to join FC Barcelona ​​​​and had to wait until the summer of 2020. In the end, the coronavirus will have shaken things up and the striker will not ever join the Catalan club.

3. He never played at Watford: 

Luis Suarez has had an eventful journey so far. It was in 2015 that he made his debut with the Leones first team, in Colombian D2. Trained at Leones FC in Colombia, he played a few matches there before flying to Granada on loan at 19. 

In 2016, he made his first visit to Granada, to evolve with the young people in the third division. But the Spanish formation did not exercise its purchase option in the summer of 2017, the moment chosen by Watford to recruit him. The Colombian, however, has not played with the Hornets.

He almost only played with the youth squad for a year and a half, before being finally recruited by the English club Watford, then in the Premier League.

Loaned in stride to the reserve of Real Valladolid FC, he played there all season and scored 11 goals. He is again loaned two seasons in a row to Gimnastic de Tarragona and Real Zaragoza FC, where this time he plays in Liga 2, the second Spanish division. 

And if his club to which he belongs, continues to make the leap between Premier League and Championship, he is finally recruited definitively by Granada, Watford’s satellite club, for 7 million euros. 

Ironically, since it was the club that bought him when he was young, Luis Suarez was finally bought a few years later for a hefty sum for a club the size of Granada. In the end, in 3 seasons with Watford, he will have had 3 consecutive loans and will not have played any minutes in the Premier League.

4. He was already wanted by OM two years ago: 

If Olympique de Marseille is one of the most popular clubs in France, it is also one of the best sellers. And we’ve always known it, dozens of rumors, all different about new players, have come out every day in the press, and now on social networks. However, if this year, the arrival of Luis Suarez surprised the entire Marseille FC sphere when no rumors had been released about him, the Marseille club was already interested in his profile around 2019. 

Indeed, then under Villas-Boas, Marseille FC is interested in the Colombian striker still playing for Watford. The rumor comes out in October 2020, he is then courted by Lazio, Atlético Madrid, or Valencia, it is finally Granada who wins because it is one of Watford’s satellite clubs.

5. Style of play and evolution as a player: 

Asked about his style of play, the Colombian explained: “I think I’m a player that suits the team well. I’m seasoned, a fighter, and I never drop a stray bullet. As a striker, […] my objective is to score many goals. A description that should delight Olympian supporters.

The native of Santa Marta, if he mainly evolved on the front of the attack as a center forward, also played a few games in other positions. 

6. Abilities:

In Granada, he was able to familiarize himself with the position of left winger, with 11 games played and 3 goals scored. He also played 4 games in his career on the right flank of the attack and was also tested as an attacking midfielder and second striker. If his main flaw is the finish, the striker feels more comfortable in a two-point attack to be able to support another attacker. 

Alongside Arkadiuz Milik, Cédric Bakambu and Bamba Dieng, he can circle around these players to deliver the right balls and score his teammates.

The maker of eight goals in 37 La Liga matches last season, and four goals in 25 games in the previous season, the Colombian is not yet a serial scorer and must improve in the finish.

His reference season on a statistical level, he achieved success on the side of Zaragoza, in Spanish D2, with 19 goals in 38 league matches. It was “only” from the second division. But it’s the only dominant team he’s played for since the start of his European career.

The main quality of Suárez lies in his activity, both offensive and defensive. The native of Santa Marta harasses, multiplies the calls, and moves on the entire front of the attack. He was also punctually aligned on one side with Granada, in particular on the left. If he does not hesitate to provoke, he makes his power speak, from the top of his 85 meters, rather than a technique that is not always very fine.

His goal against Deportivo La Coruña in December 2019 illustrates his qualities well: he starts on the left side, transplants, receives the ball, enters the box, resists a defender’s charge, and continues with a clear cross-shot. 

7. His limited experiences could be an issue for OM:

If OM wanted to offer experienced players for the Champions League, it didn’t happen this time. 

• Suárez has only eight Europa League appearances for Granada in European history, scoring two goals. 

• For the rest, he has 62 La Liga matches, mainly spent struggling in the middle of the table or for maintenance. 

• He could not avoid the relegation of the Andalusian club at the end of the previous exercise, which was the most complete of his young career in the first division.

• The Colombian also has four selections with Colombia: a first in November 2020, then three others in February, March and June. 

• He has not yet opened his counter with the Cafeteros, but had his first tenure in Saudi Arabia on June 5, in the left lane.

• A hard-hitting and dynamic striker, but still capable of more in the finish.

• Able to play up front but less to his advantage in back-to-goal play, Suarez could be better suited to supporting the center-forward in new Marseille coach Igor Tudor’s 3-4-2-1 or on a wing in a 3-4-3. A profile that Marseille president Pablo Longoria had time to study since OM were already thinking of him two years ago.