Liverpool and Barcelona great Luis Suarez has announced that he will retire from international football after Uruguay’s World Cup qualifier against Paraguay on Saturday, Soccernet.football reports.
The 37-year-old is Uruguay’s all-time leading goal-scorer, with 69 goals in 142 appearances, second only to Diego Godin (161 caps) in appearances for La Celeste.
Suarez played a crucial role in helping Uruguay reach the semi-finals of the 2010 World Cup and secure their 15th Copa America title in 2011, where he was named Player of the Tournament after scoring four goals, including the opener in a 3-0 victory over Paraguay in the final.
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The veteran forward will face the same opponents in his final international match on Saturday, as Marcelo Bielsa’s team aim to build on their 13 points from the first six games in the CONMEBOL World Cup qualification process.
“I’ve been thinking about this and analysing this. I believe this is the right time,” an emotional Suarez told reporters on Monday.
“I want to be relaxed when I play my last game with the national team. I’ll be just as excited to play as I was in 2007 when I played for my national team for the first time.
“That 19-year old kid is now a veteran player, an older player, however you want to call it, with an incredible history with the national team, that will give his life for the team.”
Suarez is widely remembered for his controversial handball on the goal line in the 2010 World Cup quarter-final, which prevented Ghana from scoring a winning goal and led to Uruguay’s victory in the penalty shootout. He was also absent from the 2015 Copa America after being handed a nine-match ban for biting Giorgio Chiellini during the 2014 World Cup.
“We did go through difficult moments. There were many,” he added. “Personally, it was worse for me after my massive mistake in 2014. But there’s nothing that I would reproach.”
