Luis Suarez pays his gratitude towards Barcelona for 2014 move after ‘biting incident’, confirms Real Madrid interest

Barcelona may be stuck in a financial limbo right now, but they made a number of huge signings across the last decade. Players that ended up defining their success, and were eventually deemed as all-timers.

The 2014 window, in particular, when Luis Enrique first arrived at the club, was crucial for Barcelona. They signed club great like Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Ivan Rakitic during that window, both of whom put up a show in the Champions League as the club completed their treble.

However, none of these were bigger than the move made for a certain Luis Suarez. Barcelona brought him in for at the time a club record, approximately €82 million. The Uruguayan was among the best strikers since his arrival, even winning the Golden Boot in the 2015/16 season.

Suarez spoke about his 2014 move to Barcelona in an interview with DelSol 99.5 FM.

“Before the 2014 World Cup, Real Madrid wanted to sign me and everything was on track… They were planning to sell Benzema to Arsenal, it was all done,” El Pistolero said.

“When the World Cup started, Barça joined the race, and obviously I preferred Barça. With the bite situation, Madrid lowered their interest, and Barça became more interested… In the end I had both options and I chose Barça because it was my dream.”

Suarez was coming off of several controversial incidents from his time at Liverpool, of which included two biting incidents. He also bit Giorgio Chiellini during the 2014 World Cup when Uruguay faced Italy, and was sanctioned to four months away from professional football.

He assisted Neymar’s goal on his debut against Real Madrid in a 1-3 loss, but found it difficult to fit into the Barcelona team that season for a while.

However, once he found his groove, Suarez ended up with 16 goals and 12 assists in 27 games that season in the league, and even scored the go-ahead goal in the Champions League final against Juventus.