Luis Suarez is to transfer to Barcelona. This has been backed up by a series of reports, of which some citing prominent people from the beleaguered striker's camp.
Suarez's transfer was initially thought to be precipitated by the infamous biting incident with Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini during the Uruguay-Italy match at this year's World Cup. However, according to Uruguay team manager Oscar Tabarez, the Suarez transfer had been a long time coming. Bleacher Report said Tabarez was quoted as saying to Sport 890 that Suarez's current club, Liverpool, had been in talks with Barcelona. Moreover, Suarez's brilliance on the field had somewhat made Liverpool apprehensive in sealing the deal with Barcelona that Tabarez said the English club attempted to pull out from the agreement.
"Luis had told me about the Barcelona interest in November last year a few days before the Jordan match. At that time the talks between Liverpool and Barcelona were very good and an agreement was arranged back then. After the amazing season he had Liverpool did not want to sell him understandably and they began to back out of the deal they made with Barcelona in November last year. Luis got word of this a day after the victory against England. He was a changed man, he got upset and his head was elsewhere. He could barely train with the rest of the team. I had to have him train with a different group from the main squad," Tabarez reportedly said.
On the other hand, Metro UK said that the embattled striker's transfer is worth £62.6 million in one lump-sum. Although Suarez's trade value would have been more than the agreed amount, the British tabloid believed that Liverpool agreed to take a hit on the football player's market value since the World Cup biting incident and the subsequent four-month football ban imposed by FIFA. At the moment, the world soccer body has since relaxed some of the terms of Suarez's punishment, and that Uruguay and Suarez has since filed an appeal on his ban.
