in small stadiums against neighborhood clubs

“For us to have Luis Suárez is crazy. We admire him a lot, he is one of the best players in the history of our country. We have seen him win everything with Barça, shine at Liverpool. And when we couldn’t wait, go home. I still don’t believe it,” admits Sergio Rochet. And in this case, it’s not a fan. He is the starting goalkeeper and captain of the National team. “I told Suárez that whenever he wants he will be the captain”, makes it clear this goalkeeper who has returned home after trying his luck in Turkish football. What could not be expected is to coincide with a Luis Suárez who, at 35, found himself without a team when he left Atlético. The goalscorer, however, wanted to keep playing to be ready for the World Cup this November, so he offered himself to Spanish, English, Italian, American clubs and the Argentine River Plate. No door opened. Some clubs already had their rosters closed. Others wanted it, but had no money. So he has ended up returning early to Nacional, the club where he started playing as a child in what is known as baby soccer, a competition system for children where the greatest talents emerge from the smallest country that has won the World Cup and the Copa America. In 2005, Suárez made his debut with the National team, but in 2006 he left for the Netherlands, at Groningen, at the age of 19. Uruguay was then experiencing a strong economic crisis and Suárez agreed to leave to earn money and help his family, very humble, and to be close to his girlfriend, who had gone to live in Amsterdam with her parents . A girlfriend who is now his wife. The mother of his children.

Suárez returns to a National that is a giant. In Uruguay there are two historic clubs that share the love of almost the entire country. The Peñarol, the chickadeesand the National, the pockets. Both clubs have been world champions, but last in the 80s. Both clubs have crazy fans. And they always aspire to stand up to big clubs in Argentina and Brazil. On their return to Uruguay, however, Nacional fell in Goiania against a Brazilian team with little history, Atlético Goianense. Suárez ended up fighting with the referee, to the jeers of the Brazilian fans. On the return flight he asked that the fans not disturb him, that he did not want to talk to anyone. “On the first leg, he did take pictures with everyone, it was beautiful. On the return leg, we were pleased to see that the defeat had hurt him. It’s how we want the players, to be passionate,” explains Matias.

Eliminated from the international competition, the National has to fight to be champion at home. In the local league, Suárez, who is currently a substitute for the Argentine Gigliotti, has already scored. Last weekend, the image of Suarez arriving at the modest Belvedere field, where Liverpool from Montevideo plays, went viral. An old stadium with a dressing room that looks like it’s from the 1930s. “It’s an old stadium, yes. But with personality. When we play here we change into our sports city, do the talk on the field and shower back into our sports city “, explains Rochet. In the Belvedere there are just four showers and wooden benches. The paint on the walls is falling off and the light is a light bulb hanging from a wire. But what looks like a thundering field is also a temple. Here, a century ago, he wore his famous jersey for the first time celeste the Uruguayan team, as it is a stadium that is more than 100 years old. “It is the heritage of our football. We have memory here because we have history,” says Rochet. The Belvedere had to be demolished in the 1930s, when the government wanted to build a hospital here and evicted Montevideo Wanderers, the club that played there. But the money for the hospital never came and in the end Liverpool leased the stadium on a temporary basis. And it has been there for 84 years, the last in ownership. This will not be the only small field that Suárez will visit, as he will play at Parque Palermo del Cerrito, Parque Capurro del Fénix or Alfredo Víctor Viera del Wanderers. All three stadiums from the 1930s, where every week the average number of spectators is around 5,000 people, hopefully. After returning to the Belvedere to defeat Liverpool 1-0, Suarez posted this message on social media: “Happy to be back playing where it all started.” He then explained how during the game, a local fan shouted at him: “Failure!”. He, one of the players with a bigger record, turned half-amused. “It’s the typical Uruguayan cry” he explained, referring to the ability to do whatever it takes to bully rival players.

Montevideo is full of stadiums. In each neighborhood there is a club that has played in Primera. And they all play in stadiums where time seems to have stood still. Only Nacional and Peñarol have modern pitches. The club chickadee built one in 2016 and Nacional remodeled its Parque Central, a facility inaugurated in 1900 where everything has happened, such as the captain of the 1918 team, Abdón Porte, taking his own life ‘a shot at night right in the middle of the lawn in a suicide whose reason the legend has wanted to be that he had understood that he could never play as a starter again. “The first match in the history of the World Cup was played in our stadium,” recalls Matias. Yes, a France-Mexico World Cup 1930. In Uruguay, history seems alive. And every neighborhood breathes football.

The return of the goalscorer looks like a trip back in time. Suárez landed in Montevideo in Leo Messi’s private jet, which lent him the device. Suárez has a house on the outskirts of Montevideo, where he used to spend a few days a year. Now he will stay there until the World Cup, and will change the Champions stadiums for those with wooden stands. On the day of his first game, Kun Agüero came over to cheer him on. His presence changes everything, and without intending to help the economy of the most modest clubs, such as Liverpool, who have been able to sell more tickets than ever before. Few countries live football like Uruguay, as this sport allowed them to find a place in the world when they won Olympic gold in 1924 and 1928, as well as the World Cups in 1930 and 1950. “Our country does not can be understood without football,” says Matias.

And Luis Suárez is local football history. A goalscorer who now returns to fields with little grass, with fans very close, with small dressing rooms. And with modest salaries. No one knows for sure what Suarez earns now, but it is certainly very little compared to his last salaries. In 2019, Nacional started a spending control policy according to which the players who would get paid the most would take about 30,000 euros a month. In other words, 16 times less than what Suárez earned at Atlético. And much less than what he earned at Barça, where he earned 15 million euros net for one season. The National has made an exception with him, aware that his signing will also allow to sell more products and more tickets, and to have more members. Both games as the club’s home team pocket, for now, they have posted the poster of all the tickets sold. Now, the board was hoping to reach the semi-finals or the final of the Copa Sudamericana to earn more money, but Suarez’s return did not get off to a good start.