Luis Suarez, the all-time top scorer for the Uruguay national team, announced that he will play his last match with Uruguay this Friday against Paraguay in Montevideo, on the seventh date for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers of the South American.
“Friday will be my last match with my country’s national team,” said the 37-year-old striker, considered one of the best attackers of the 21st century, in a press conference on Monday evening, almost moved to tears.
Also Read: Mbappe Scores His First Goal in the Spanish League and Calms Anxiety at Real Madrid
Uruguay and Paraguay will face each other on September 6 at 8:30 p.m. local time (11:30 p.m. GMT) at the Centenario Stadium, when South American qualifying for the World Cup to be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico in two years’ time resumes this month.
Speculation about Suarez’s retirement from the Uruguayan national team began on Sunday when the Uruguayan Football Association called a press conference with the premise that “Luis Suarez has something to tell you.”
Dressed in a white T-shirt and blue jacket, the iconic number 9 broke down several times when confirming his retirement, which he said he had been “thinking about” for some time and had come to the conclusion that “it was the right time.”
“It was not an easy decision, but I am confident that I will give my all until the last match,” he said and promised that he will enter the field on Friday “with the same enthusiasm” with which he began his career defending the Uruguay 17 years ago.
Suarez joined the Uruguay national team in the era of Oscar Washington Tabarez (2006-2021) along with Diego Forlan and Edinson Cavani, one of the icons of the golden generation that returned Uruguay to the elite of world football.
He has played 142 matches for Uruguay and scored 69 goals, making him the all-time top scorer for the two-time world champion team.
The most beautiful moment of my career
Suarez made his debut for the Uruguay national team on 7 February 2007 in a friendly against Colombia away in Cucuta. Eight months later, in the first match of the qualifiers for South Africa 2010, he scored his first goal for Uruguay at the Centenario, opening the scoring in a 5-0 win over Bolivia.
Since then, Suarez has played in four World Cups, including the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, where Uruguay finished fourth. He has also played in five Copa Americas, winning the 2011 Copa America in Argentina and finishing third in the recent 2024 Copa America in the United States.
“I wouldn’t trade the Copa America title for anything,” he said on Monday, his voice breaking. “It was the greatest moment of my career. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Applauded for his passing skills and his precision in finishing, the number 9 with the wide smile is also famous for fighting tooth and nail for his national team, even at the cost of starring in scandals.
In South Africa in 2010, he blocked with his hand a ball that was going into the net and would have given Ghana a pass to the semi-finals, for which he was sent off, but he ended up winning in the penalty shootout.
In Brazil in 2014, he bit Italian Giorgio Chiellini on the shoulder. Uruguay went on to win the decisive match against Italy 1-0, although Suarez was later punished with a nine-match suspension and four months of disqualification from all football-related activities.
Born on 24 January 1987 in Salto, some 500 km northwest of Montevideo, Suarez grew up in a humble family and moved as a child to the Uruguayan capital where he began his career at Nacional de Montevideo.
