Luis Suarez's return home

The private plane with registration LVIRQ, coming from Barcelona and owned by Lionel Messi, arrived at the Uruguayan airport of Carrasco at 10:55 a.m. on the last day of July.

On board, the Celeste's all-time top scorer, Luis Suárez, and family.

Thousands of Nacional fans were waiting for him on the ground, the club in which he emerged and for which the gunman returns to play, 17 years later, after a long career that took him to Holland, England and Spain, and after an extensive network of negotiations that began when Suárez rejected the offer of the Argentine club River Plate.

Suárez returns to Uruguay for love.

That of his compatriots —fans or not of Nacional— and the one that binds him to his family, as he confessed in his first statements on the mainland, in which he revealed that it was Delfina and Benjamín who expressed their desire to live in their country, close to his cousins ​​and his uncles.

"The happiness that they have has no name," concluded the striker.

“Lautaro is very small, but he has already arrived here and asked for the National shirt.

Delfina and Benjamín held back the urge to cry with emotion when they found out that we were coming to Uruguay and they went to tell their friends,” he added.

And he dealt with the legacy: "I want my son to play on the dirt courts that I played on."

He also did his bit to eradicate a serious problem in Uruguayan football, which completely distances this type of transfers.

"Now that we are an example, that many people will be watching Uruguayan soccer, let's try to eliminate that violence and insults," he said.

Luis Suárez received offers from all over the world in addition to River, some very succulent, such as Toluca from Mexico, for just under six million euros per year.

However, he is going to play for around 30,000 euros a month, like three other players on the squad.

The joy of the forward born in Salto, on the Uruguayan coast that borders Argentina, could be seen reflected in his face, craning his neck like a child out the window of the van that led a huge caravan of fans who cried, applauded, greeted and They waved flags from sidewalks, rooftops, balconies, buses, sailboats and even a small plane to their idol, the one who scored two goals against England in Brazil 2014, the one who made his debut and returned to the Great Central Park.

The first trigger for Suárez to return to Nacional is the climate in Qatar, and the atypical date on which the World Cup will be played.

Then, his family and friends, his colleagues, and the fans and leaders of the Tricolor were key.

“Some time ago when we were in the national team we always talked about the possibility of returning, the issue was knowing when the right time was, not the desire.

This theoretically was not the moment, but due to the great mobilization and management that the president did and everything that the fan generated, he ended up mobilizing him, ”the former player and current coach, Sebastián Abreu, told EL PAÍS.

It is that when Suárez said no to River, he also acknowledged: "I am surprised because the leaders of Nacional did not even call me to find out my situation."

The reaction of the fans of Nacional was immediate.

The hashtag

was a worldwide trend thanks to the fact that a large part of the country joined a plea that included athletes in general, politicians, scientists, cultural personalities and even Lucho's own referents, such as Álvaro Recoba, Diego Forlán and Lionel Messi, who spoke publicly or privately.

"He wished me all the best, he told me he was going to be in the country and with the family," Suarez said of Leo.

presidential job

However, the first who believed was the president of Nacional, José Fuentes, who traveled to Spain and served as a bridge between that affection and the player.

It was he who received the call from Suárez, three minutes before he posted the video on Twitter confirming his "inevitable return".

Then the fans did their thing.

In one week the club added 2,000 new members and another 4,000 are waiting on the waiting list.

In addition, another 5,000 have already reserved their jersey, as a result of a new contract with Umbro, the company that dresses Nacional, once the 1,500 that were sold around the stadium sold out.

At 2:00 p.m. sharp, Suárez signed the contract, after appearing with his teammates and jumping onto the field to greet the crowd that dressed Central Park like every Sunday.

"I'm here for you, because I want to be here and because I want to win," he told them, and what seemed impossible came true.

Without luxuries or millionaire contracts.

just for glory

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