Barcelona star Luis Suarez yearns for redemption

Skilled star: Luis Suarez returned from a four month ban to start Saturday’s El Clasico between Real Madrid and Barcelona

Calm and composed. Luis Suarez emerges from within the bowels of the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper, FC Barcelona’s training complex, and onto the 3G pitches where a laborious training session, Barcelona’s last before Saturday’s Clasico, awaits. The Uruguayan is winged by Andre Ter-Stegen, Barca’s promising German goalkeeper, and Rafael Alcantara, the talented brother of La Masia graduate and Bayern Munich star Thiago. Alcantara is sipping from an energy drink while Suarez has opted for the healthier option, clear bottled water.

Luis Enrique works them hard, works them to optimal fitness ahead of a fixture of such monumental significance. The opening drill is a traditional game of ‘piggy in the middle’. First it is Jeremy Mathieu, the imposing French central defender acquired from Valencia in the summer, who is toyed with mercilessly by his Barca colleagues before Sergio Busquets, ‘el ejecutor’, meaning ‘the enforcer’ as he is affectionately known by the Gol Nord, steps up to endure the torture.

The atmosphere at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper training complex is relaxed, the players sporing smiles while Enrique looks on with a serious expression. Now it is Suarez’s turn to suffer at the hands of his playful colleagues, the striker running tirelessly to close down Neymar and then proceeds to press Barca left-back Jordi Alba. The drill is then slightly tweaked. Suarez, Gerard Pique and Pedro Rodriguez are instructed to harry and press their team-mates. Throughout this whole time, Enrique, sunglasses resting on his tanned nose, is motionless and devoid of emotion.

Suarez, however, is the opposite, smiles and grimaces inter-changing as the Uruguayan is put through his paces. Enrique works his players hard but Suarez has no concerns. After all, he has worked hard to be where he is.

A long road to redemption

He knows he will have to work hard to achieve redemption, to restore the positivity attached to his name after asserting his magic on Liverpool. Disgraced after being hit with a four month ban for biting Giorgio Chiellini at the FIFA World Cup, Suarez knows he has a long way to go until he can restore his rightful standing amongst Europe’s elite. After the racisim affair in 2011 involving Patrice Evra, Suarez needs no more distractions, no more unhelpful headlines to take away from his magic and genius as a footballer. He is, after all, a player boasting skill, technique and graft of gargantuan proportions.

The Uruguayan started in Saturday’s El Clasico at the Santiago Bernabeu, a gripping, enthralling encounter in which Barcelona succumbed to the verve, quality and supremacy of a star-studded Real Madrid team. Barca manager Luis Enrique had hinted at the plausibility of Suarez starting in the Spanish capital, claiming Suarez would “have some minutes” on his debut, but it soon came clear the Uruguayan was not ready, not sufficiently prepared to be thrown into a game of such ferocity.

Subdued in Clasico

He had not played an official match since being reprimanded by FIFA. Suarez was initially suspended by world football’s governing body from all football related activity for four months and banned for a record nine competitive international matches. Suarez appealed against FIFA’s ruling, and although his ban was upheld by the Court of Arbitration of Sport (Cas) in August, the repurcusion was relaxed to permit him to train and play in friendly matches.

This, however, was no friendly match. Very much the opposite.

The former Liverpool attacker was largely subdued, failing to assert his mercurial brilliance on an open, flowing Clasico. He combined cohesively with his attacking partners at times, in Neymar and the revered Lionel Messi, but the Barca faithful must not expect much too early. Suarez will deliver in Catalonia. It is just a matter of when as Suarez yearns for redemption.