Luis Suarez has revealed that Barcelona deliberately wanted him out of the club to end his relationship with Lionel Messi.
The bad treatment allegedly meted out to him made him cry before leaving for Atletico Madrid. The Uruguay forward is now an Athletico Madrid player after ending his six-year spell at Barca in September.
According to the striker, he was initially stopped from training with the first team before his departure.
“Those days were very difficult. I cried because of what I was having to go through.
“I was hurt most of all by the way they did things because one has to accept it when a cycle comes to an end,” said Suarez.
Suarez became a Barcelona player after joining from Liverpool for £74m in 2014. He then became the club’s third all-time top scorer with 198 goals, winning four La Liga titles, four domestic cups, and the 2015 Champions League in the process.
His lowest tally of 21 was in 2019-20. As part of the restructuring in the squad, Suarez was not involved in Barca’s pre-season matches. He later left with one-year remaining on his contract.
In securing his signature, Atletico paid a nominal fee of no more than 6m.
“I didn’t take the club’s message that they were looking for a solution for me in order to mix things up very well.
“Not everyone knows what happened but the worst thing was going to training and being sent to a different group from everyone else because I was not allowed to play in practice matches.
“My wife could see how unhappy I was and she wanted to see me smile again and when the chance came to join Atletico I had no doubts.”
Suarez not surprised by Messi’s support
It could be recalled that Messi, who is the club’s record goalscorer posted a message of support for Suarez on social media, saying he had been “kicked out”.
Messi, who was not surprised at Barca’s behaviour was also supported by some ex-players which include Neymar, Dani Alves, Cesc Fabregas, amongst others. The Argentine says Suarez deserved more from Barca.
“I wasn’t surprised that Messi supported me publicly because I know him too well.
“He knew the pain I was going through, the feeling that I was being kicked out was what hurt me the most.
“The way they did things was not right and Leo knows how I and my family suffered,” he added.
Luis Suarez claims Barca wanted to separate him from Messi
Speaking further with ESPN’s “90 Minutos”, the 33-year-old striker said Barca’s reason for selling him was neither financial nor sporting.
“There are a lot of contradictions [in Barcelona’s version of events].
“I would have looked for a solution if it was a financial problem and if it was a sporting issue I could have understood. It is not clear to me why they took the decision they took.
“I think they wanted to remove me from Messi’s side. Maybe it annoyed them that I had a good relationship with Leo. Perhaps they didn’t want him to be with me so much. I can’t find any reason to think that would damage the team, though.
“We looked for each other constantly on the pitch, but for the good of the team. Maybe they wanted him to play with more teammates. That could have something to do with it. I can’t find any other reason to want to separate us because we got on well on the pitch.”
Messi had signified the intention to leave the club. But the club refused to grant his transfer request, insisting that he must complete his contract with the club. Messi’s contract expires in 2021.
“They should have respected his decision to leave,” Suarez said.
Suarez, however, thinks his old teammate may extend his 20-year stay in Catalonia with a new president to be elected before the end of the season. This is because most of Messi’s criticism of the club has been linked to current president Josep Maria Bartomeu.
“Leo’s aware of what he means to Barcelona. He’s given things to the club you could never imagine. He must carry on being the No.1, being the best, and [being] happy.
“Maybe there’s the possibility that he plays for another club, but if he feels comfortable and happy and a new board comes in, he will want to stay at the club. As a friend, I will be happy if things go well for him there, but also if he has to go to another club.”
Suarez, who also criticized Bartomeu and the Barca board feels he had earned the right to be treated with more respect.
“It really hurt me and my family the way they did it.
“It wasn’t right. That a coach [Ronald Koeman] comes in and says he doesn’t count on me when the board had already said there were going to be big changes generate doubts. Koeman called me to tell me that I wasn’t in his plans, but I’d known what was coming for 10 days. He just confirmed what I’d seen in the media.
“I always said the club needed a young striker, but they never brought anyone in to compete with me even. For years, they’ve wanted to bring more forwards because they wanted to kick me out.
“It had been coming but I at least deserved for them to phone me and explain [why they wanted me gone] before learning of it through the media.”
