Luis Suarez talks Darwin Nunez Liverpool criticism after ‘something spectacular was said to him’

Luis Suarez has opened up about his “spectacular” relationship with Darwin Nunez and how he first learned about the Liverpool forward.

The pair are currently away with Uruguay at the Copa America in the United States and their campaign is set to begin against Panama in the early hours of Monday morning back in the UK.

Former Reds striker Suarez, who now plays for David Beckham’s Inter Miami, is a Uruguayan legend and his country’s top scorer with 68 goals. However, the 37-year-old is no longer first choice on the international stage.

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Suarez has not played for Uruguay since the 2022 World Cup and has made just one substitute appearance for his country in the last 18 months. But he earned an international recall for the Copa America after returning 14 goals and seven assists in 20 appearances since joining the MLS club.

While Nunez dropped Suarez from Uruguay’s number nine shirt ahead of the tournament, the current Liverpool striker remains first choice for his country. And he enters the Copa America off the back of a hat-trick in a 4-0 warm-up friendly win over Mexico, ending a lengthy drought that has seen him make just one of his last 13 appearances for the Reds.

Fortunately, he is in better form for his country, with that hat-trick taking his tally to eight goals and three assists in just seven World Cup appearances. He will be looking to replicate such form in the Copa America, having recently admitted he is happiest when with the Uruguayan national team, amid frequent abuse, criticism and scrutiny since first moving to England.

“I feel like my home is when I’m in the national team,” he told Por la jersey (Uruguay’s Channel 10), as quoted by ESPN, last month. “Then you meet your people, you can talk to everyone and feel comfortable in the national team. My family is also close; Every time I go to the national team I feel at home.”

Suarez, who is understandably Nunez’s idol, sees a lot of himself in the 24-year-old. And having watched his fellow striker since he first burst onto the scene with Penarol as a teenager, the former Liverpool star sang his compatriot’s praises on the eve of the Copa America and backed him to overcome his recent criticism.

“Today he is one of the best center forwards in the world,” Suarez told AUF TV, quoted by ESPN. “I like how he plays and I like watching him.

“Since Darwin was at Penarol I was talking to him, through someone else. It was a game where he scored three goals that caught my attention.

“Back then it was said that he missed a lot of goals, but he also created a lot. They criticized me for the same reason, but the important thing is that he always tried to overcome, he never gave in.

“I always saw special conditions in him. The striker has to be like that, the ambition, the desire to improve, the desire to get ahead of him.

“I had colleagues like Diego Forlan who always helped me a lot. I always talked to him, I went into his room and he liked to approach me. He was always trying to improve himself, looking for advice.

“Darwin was always coming, coming up to me, trying to talk and ask me things to improve. He is a divine child. For him to tell me that I’m his idol is something spectacular.

“Since he got to the national team he told me that as long as I’m there, the nine will be mine. It is something that one appreciates very much because it is a very nice gesture.

“I’m coming here to compete for his job. We all want to do our best to win the Cup. To be here competing with him is something very nice.”

Nunez has returned 33 goals and 17 assists from 96 appearances since joining Liverpool in a deal worth up to a record £85m fee from Benfica in 2022. Meanwhile, Suarez has recorded 82 goals and 29 assists in 133 appearances over three and a half years. with the Reds before leaving for Barcelona in a £65m deal in 2014.