“Friday will be my last game in the national team,” 37-year-old Suarez said at the press conference before the upcoming match in the 2026 World Cup qualification against the national team of Paraguay.
“It was not an easy decision, but I take it with a calm heart and I will give my best in the last match of my career for the national team,” added the experienced striker.
The former player of the Spanish giant “Barcelona” and the English Premier League club “Liverpool” has played 142 games in the Uruguay national team and scored 69 goals during his career, being the best sniper of all time for the national team. Svares made his debut in the national team in 2007.
With the national team, Svares became the winner of the 2011 South American championship – “Copa America”, but scored his last goal in the national team shirt in this year’s “Copa America” game for third place, in which Uruguay beat Canada.
Svares was disqualified twice for biting opponents, and also received a disqualification for racist comments on the field. He is also remembered by many football fans after the 2010 World Cup quarter-final against Ghana, when he intentionally stopped a ball flying into the goal line with his hand. He was sent off for doing so, but Ghana missed a penalty and Uruguay later reached the semi-finals in penalty kicks.
He continues his football career in the North American Major League Soccer (MLS) club Inter Miami, where he plays alongside the Argentine legend Lionel Messi.
Svares started his career as a professional player in “Nacional” Montevideo, after which he moved to the Netherlands, where he played one season for “Groningen” and four seasons for “Ajax Amsterdam”. The forward spent three seasons with “Liverpool”, from 2014 to 2020 the forward represented “Barcelona”, then he played for another Spanish club “Atletico Madrid” for two seasons, until he returned to “Nacional” in 2022. The forward spent one more season in the Brazilian club Gremio Portualegri, but this year he joined Inter Miami.
The Uruguay national team ranks second in the 2026 South American zone (CONMEBOL) qualification after six matches with 13 points, only behind the leader Argentina, which has 15 points.
2024-09-04 13:32:30