Reports: Luis Suarez not in Ronald Koeman's Barcelona plans

Barcelona's Ronald Koeman has asked Luis Suarez to find a new club
Barcelona's Ronald Koeman has asked Luis Suarez to find a new club

New Barcelona head coach Ronald Koeman has reportedly decided to move on with his project, without Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez being part of it.

According to journalist Gerard Romero of RAC1, Koeman is said to have communicated to Suarez this morning that the Uruguayan does not feature in his plans to take Barcelona forward.

Romero also says that the immediate next step for Suarez and Barcelona now is to work out an agreement to mutually terminate the striker's contract, so that the two parties are satisfied and can take their next steps.

Suarez is Barcelona's third highest goal-scorer of all time, with 198 goals in 283 appearances across competitions for the Blaugrana.

Last week, it was reported that Suarez was determined to stay at Barcelona and prove his doubters wrong. The Uruguayan was said to want to at least see out his current contract at Barcelona, which runs through to the end of the 2020-21 season.

Suarez's future was thrown up in the air by club President Josep Maria Bartomeu in the aftermath of the 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal. Bartomeu had said that the club was looking to build to the future, and only a few players were safe from being put up for sale.

The President named Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele, Nelson Semedo, Frenkie De Jong and Clement Lenglet as the players to take Barcelona forward into a new era.


Luis Suarez set to leave Barcelona

Luis Suarez is set to leave Barcelona after six years at the club
Luis Suarez is set to leave Barcelona after six years at the club

Renowned journalist Fabrizio Romano said that there are many clubs who are interested in the developments surrounding Suarez at Barcelona, and that he is set to leave the club in a few days.

Dutch outlet AD had last week reported that Suarez was close to agreeing a move to return to Ajax, where he had a terrific couple of years before he moved to Liverpool in January 2011.

Ajax head coach Erik Ten Hag had said then that the club would monitor Suarez's situation at Ajax, and if the opportunity arose to sign him, they could take it.

"He would give us an incredible boost," Ten Hag said.

During his first stint at Ajax, Suarez scored an incredible 111 goals in 159 appearances - a return that had made him one of the hottest strikers in Europe, with the continent's elite circling for his signature.

Suarez has won everything there is to win at Barcelona, including a treble in 2015, when he was central to the success of the famed MSN trio, along with Lionel Messi and Neymar.

Romero, who extensively covered Barcelona, was also scathing of Bartomeu's treatment of a club legend like Suarez. He said that such an important decision regarding the club's third top goalscorer in history, should have been communicated by the President and not the head coach.

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Edited by Aaditya Narayan