Luis Suárez (footballer, born 1935) facts for kids
Suárez with the Spain national team in 1961
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Personal information | |||||||||||||
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Date of birth | 2 May 1935 | ||||||||||||
Place of birth | A Coruña, Galicia, Spain | ||||||||||||
Date of death | 9 July 2023 | (aged 88)||||||||||||
Place of death | Milan, Lombardy, Italy | ||||||||||||
Height | 1.75 m | ||||||||||||
Playing position | Inside right, attacking midfielder | ||||||||||||
Youth career | |||||||||||||
Perseverancia | |||||||||||||
1949–1953 | Fabril | ||||||||||||
Senior career* | |||||||||||||
Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† | ||||||||||
1953–1954 | Deportivo La Coruña | 17 | (3) | ||||||||||
1954–1955 | Condal | 21 | (6) | ||||||||||
1955–1961 | Barcelona | 122 | (62) | ||||||||||
1961–1970 | Inter Milan | 256 | (42) | ||||||||||
1970–1973 | Sampdoria | 63 | (9) | ||||||||||
Total | 479 | (121) | |||||||||||
National team | |||||||||||||
1957–1972 | Spain | 32 | (14) | ||||||||||
Teams managed | |||||||||||||
1973–1974 | Genoa Primavera | ||||||||||||
1974–1975 | Inter Milan | ||||||||||||
1975 | Cagliari | ||||||||||||
1977 | SPAL | ||||||||||||
1977–1978 | Como | ||||||||||||
1978–1979 | Deportivo La Coruña | ||||||||||||
1981–1989 | Spain U21 | ||||||||||||
1988–1991 | Spain | ||||||||||||
1992 | Inter Milan | ||||||||||||
1995 | Albacete | ||||||||||||
1995 | Inter Milan (interim) | ||||||||||||
Honours
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Luis Suárez Miramontes ( 2 May 1935 – 9 July 2023) was a Spanish professional footballer and manager. He played as a midfielder for Deportivo de La Coruña, España Industrial, FC Barcelona, Inter Milan, Sampdoria and the Spain national team. Suárez is regarded as one of the greatest Spanish football players of all time. He was noted for his elegant, fluid, graceful style of play.
Nicknamed El Arquitecto – The Architect – or Luisito Suárez was noted for his perceptive passing and explosive shot; in 1960, he became the first and only male Spanish-born player to win the Ballon d'Or. In 1964, he helped Spain win the European Championship. Suárez originally achieved prominence as a creative inside forward, or attacking midfielder in modern terms, for the great Barcelona team of the 1950s before he joined Inter Milan where he reached his prime as deep-lying playmaker for the legendary Grande Inter team of the 1960s. He played a pivotal role in the success of Helenio Herrera's Inter Milan side, and was one of the primary creative forces in the squad, due to his skill on the ball, vision, and passing range. He retired as a player in 1973, after three seasons at Sampdoria.
Suárez subsequently began a career as a coach and has managed Inter Milan on three occasions, the last two on a caretaker basis. Suárez has also coached both Spain U21s and the senior Spain team. He was in charge of the latter for 27 games and led them to the second round of the 1990 World Cup. He has also coached several Italian and Spanish club sides. He died in Milan on 9 July 2023, aged 88.
Contents
Club career
Early career
Luis Suárez Miramontes was born on 2 May 1935, in A Coruña, Galicia. He lived on Avenida de Hércules in the working-class neighborhood of Monte Alto where he was known by the diminutive Luisito.
He began his career with local side Deportivo de La Coruña in 1949 and worked his way through the junior sides before making his La Liga debut with Deportivo on 6 December 1953 in a 6–1 defeat to FC Barcelona. Among his teammates at Deportivo were Pahiño and Arsenio Iglesias. He played 17 games and scored 3 goals for Deportivo during the remaining season. In 1954, he was transferred to FC Barcelona but spent most of the 1954–55 season playing for their reserve side, España Industrial, in the second division.
Barcelona
Between 1955 and 1961, Suárez was a regular in a FC Barcelona team that also included the Hungarian trio Ladislao Kubala, Zoltán Czibor and Sándor Kocsis, alongside Ramallets and Evaristo. With Helenio Herrera as coach, the club and Suárez won a domestic league–cup double in 1959 and a league–Fairs Cup double the subsequent year. As a result, Suárez won the Ballon d'Or in 1960, as the first and to date only in Spanish-born football player. One of his last games for the club was the final of the European Cup in 1961 which they lost 3–2 to Benfica. For Barcelona, he scored 141 goals in 253 matches.
Inter Milan
In 1961, Suárez became the world's most expensive footballer when FC Barcelona sold him to Inter Milan for 25 million Spanish Pesetas (£152,000). The move saw him follow his mentor Helenio Herrera. Along with Juan Santisteban, he became the first Spanish player in Serie A.
Suárez was a regular in Herrera's Grande Inter team that won three Serie A titles, two consecutive European Cups and two Intercontinental Cups. Between 1961 and 1970 he made 328 appearances for Inter and scored 55 goals. On 10 March 1963, he scored three times in a 6–0 win over Genoa; this was the only hat-trick by a Spaniard in Serie A until Suso's for Genoa in 2016, to whom Suárez sent his congratulations.
Sampdoria
In 1970, he signed with Sampdoria where he ended his active football career in 1973.
International career
Suárez also played 32 games for Spain and scored fourteen goals. He made his debut on 30 January 1957 in a 5–1 victory over the Netherlands and represented Spain at both the 1962 and 1966 FIFA World Cups. However his greatest achievement with Spain came in 1964 when he Spain won the European Championship. He played his final game for Spain at almost 37 years of age in a draw with Greece in 1972.
Death
Suárez died on 9 July 2023, at the age of 88. Suarez’s death was announced by former Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti, who confirmed he had been hospitalized at the Ospedale Niguarda in Milan several days before his death.
Career statistics
National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
---|---|---|---|
Spain | 1957 | 6 | 4 |
1958 | 3 | 2 | |
1959 | 5 | 5 | |
1960 | 7 | 3 | |
1961 | 1 | 0 | |
1962 | 2 | 0 | |
1963 | 1 | 0 | |
1964 | 2 | 0 | |
1965 | 2 | 0 | |
1966 | 2 | 0 | |
1967 | 0 | 0 | |
1968 | 0 | 0 | |
1969 | 0 | 0 | |
1970 | 0 | 0 | |
1971 | 0 | 0 | |
1972 | 1 | 0 | |
Total | 32 | 14 |
- Scores and results list Spain's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Suárez goal.
No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
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1 | 10 March 1957 | Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain | Switzerland | 1–1 | 2–2 | 1958 FIFA World Cup qualification |
2 | 31 March 1957 | Heysel, Brussels, Belgium | Belgium | 2–0 | 5–0 | Friendly |
3 | 5–0 | |||||
4 | 8 May 1957 | Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland | Scotland | 2–2 | 2–4 | 1958 FIFA World Cup qualification |
5 | 13 March 1958 | Parc des Princes, Paris, France | France | 2–1 | 2–2 | Friendly |
6 | 15 October 1958 | Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain | Northern Ireland | 4–1 | 6–2 | Friendly |
7 | 28 June 1959 | Silesian Stadium, Chorzów, Poland | Poland | 1–1 | 4–2 | UEFA Euro 1960 qualifying |
8 | 3–1 | |||||
9 | 22 November 1959 | Mestalla, Valencia, Spain | Austria | 2–0 | 6–3 | Friendly |
10 | 3–0 | |||||
11 | 17 December 1959 | Parc des Princes, Paris, France | France | 1–0 | 3–4 | Friendly |
12 | 10 July 1960 | Estadio Nacional, Lima, Peru | Peru | 2–0 | 3–1 | Friendly |
13 | 3–0 | |||||
14 | 26 October 1960 | Wembley, London, England | England | 2–2 | 2–4 | Friendly |
Honours
Player
Barcelona
- La Liga: 1958–59, 1959–60
- Copa del Generalísimo: 1957, 1958–59
- Inter-Cities Fairs Cup: 1955–58, 1958–60
Inter Milan
- Serie A: 1962–63, 1964–65, 1965–66
- European Cup: 1963–64, 1964–65
- Intercontinental Cup: 1964, 1965
Spain
- European Nations' Cup: 1964
Manager
Spain U21
Individual
- Ballon d'Or: 1960
- Silver Ball: 1961, 1964
- Bronze Ball: 1965
- Eric Batty's World XI: 1963, 1964, 1965
- UEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament: 1964
- Golden Foot: 2008, as football legend
- Marca Leyenda: 2016
Orders
- Gold Medal of the Royal Order of Sporting Merit: 2001
See also
In Spanish: Luis Suárez Miramontes para niños