Suarez is Liverpool’s Maradona

DIEGO Maradona was the greatest player I ever saw. He was a genius and an animal. The animal in him helped him be the genius he was.

Maradona was raised in Villa Fiorito, a shanty town on the outskirts of Buena Aires. He was born into a poor family and was the middle of five children, that his parents struggled to support. Life was tough, and Diego fought every day for what he had.

The boy was supremely gifted with a ball at his feet, learned from countless hours of preparation by playing on the streets. At the age of 10 he was spotted by a scout, and the rest is history.

Luis Suarez was born in Salto and raised in Montevideo. He was born into a poor family and was the middle of seven children, that his mother struggled to support after his father deserted the family. Life was tough, and Luis fought every day for what he had.

The boy was gifted with a ball at his feet, learned from countless hours of preparation by playing on the streets. At the age of 9 he was spotted by a scout, and the rest, well, Luis still has more history to write.

The parallels are striking regarding both the difficulty of their upbringing but also their win at all costs, controversial behaviour. Maradona is the only player ever to break the World Record transfer fee twice. Once when moving to Barcelona for £5m and again when moving to Napoli for £6.9m. Diego’s time at Barcelona was full of incidents, from fighting on the pitch to drugs and debauchery off it.

The Catalans decided that despite his talent he was too much to handle and moved him on. It was at Napoli that he found a home, where he was loved whatever he did, where he was protected and supported, and so he thrived to became the best player in the world, possibly the best ever.
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I’m not going to cover the same ground regarding the Suarez biting incident. It was appalling, all the more disappointing as Luis was no longer in the headlines for the wrong reasons. Dave Martinez wrote an excellent article summarising the situation and putting the incident in context.

Unlike Maradona, Suarez has a very settled, sedate married life with his wife and beloved daughter Delfina (an anagram of Anfield, did you know?) It is when he steps on the pitch that he changes. He is loved at Liverpool, and it is important for us (and Luis) that we help him and support him to channel his aggression better. Man United did that with Cantona, Keane and Rooney, and have benefited massively as a result.

As Steven Gerrard pointed out in the post match interview after the Chelsea game, wisely side-stepping the bite incident, Luis Suarez is the best player in the Premier League and is just below the level of Messi and Ronaldo. It is incredibly rare to find a player of this ability and this level of work rate.

Liverpool mustn’t do a Barcelona and sell on a wonderful talent only for the next team to benefit like Napoli. We must be firm when he errors, but supportive and protective when he is attacked in the press. He is our Maradona. And we must make sure he stays ours.

You can catch more from me on my own blog: http://taintlessred.blogspot.co.uk/
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