Luis Suarez moved to Barcelona from Liverpool in 2014 and the Uruguayan has been the mainstay at the Camp Nou since then.
But just one year before he made the move to Spain, Luis Suarez was scheduled to join Premier League rivals Arsenal.
In 2013, the then Gunners boss Arsene Wenger had famously offered £40,000,001 to activate the Uruguayan’s release clause but ultimately the deal did not go through.
And now Luis Suarez has revealed that it as in fact Steven Gerrard who prevented him from joining Arsenal.
Here’s why.
“We qualified for the UEFA Europa League but the season ended badly,” Suarez said, as quoted by Sky Sports.
“I’m about to go to Arsenal, forcing myself to go, and Steven tells me ‘I promise that if you stay this year you’re going to take off and next year you’ll go to Bayern, Barcelona, Real Madrid or whichever one you want, but stay this year because you won’t be better off at Arsenal’.
“This was the last conversation I had with Gerrard at that moment and I told my agent that I had made my decision and I was staying.
“His words convinced me in that moment. They came from a person who cared for me, who wanted my well-being, who saw me suffer during training and saw me sad.
“They were words from a true captain that had an impact in that moment and helped me a lot.”
When Luis Suarez joined Barcelona in 2014 and went on to have a wonderful season with the Catalan giants, Wenger became the brunt of many jokes for not taking the transfer seriously.
But now we know that even Luis Suarez was interested in moving to London but it was Gerrard who had actually forced him to reconsider.
Read: Here’s why Liverpool were able to beat Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
Read: Arsenal are planning to make a move for ‘this’ 21 Y/O Ligue 1 winger.
