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 Seasons with the club: 1954-61
Games played: 216
Goals scored: 114
Titles: 2 Fairs Cups (1955/58,
58/60)
2 Leagues (1958/59 , 59/60)
2 Spanish Cups (1956/57 , 58/59)
European Footballer of the Year - Golden Ball:
1960
Silver Ball: 1961, 1964.
Bronze Ball: 1965.
Luis Suárez Miramontes was born on May 2, 1935, in La Coruña,
Galicia, Spain is a former Spanish footballer and manager. Known as ‘Golden Galician’, Suárez is regarded as one
of Spain’s greatest players. He had everything you could want of a footballer: amazing skill, an amazing talent for
moving the ball about with his feet, great vision and a tremendous shot. However, he was mainly noted for his elegant style,
it was often said he was such a graceful player that he could have played in a dinner jacket.
He was noted for his perceptive passing and explosive shot and in 1960 he became the only Spanish-born player to date
to be voted the European Footballer of the Year. In 1964, he helped Spain win the European Championship. He was also a prominent
member of the successful Barcelona team of the 1950s before he joined Inter Milan where he was an equally prominent member
of the legendary Inter side of the 1960s. He retired as a player in 1973, after three seasons at Sampdoria.
Suárez
began his career with Deportivo de La Coruña in 1949 and worked his way through the junior sides before making his La Liga
debut with Deportivo on December 6 1953 in a 6-1 defeat to CF Barcelona. Among his team mates at Deportivo were Pahiño and
Arsenio Iglesias. He played 17 games and scored 3 goals for Deportivo during the remaining season.
In 1954 he transferred
to Barcelona and but spent most of the 1954/55 season playing for their reserve team, CD España Industrial.
Between
1955 and 1961, Suárez was a regular in a Barcelona team that also included Ladislao Kubala, Zoltán Czibor, Sándor Kocsis,
Ramallets and Evaristo. With Helenio Herrera as the coach, the club and Suárez won a La Liga/Copa del Generalísimo (Copa Del
Rey) double in 1959 and the La Liga /UEFA Fairs Cup double in 1960.
Suárez was the first Barcelona player to be ever voted European Footballer of the Year in 1960. One of his last games
for Barcelona was the final of the European Cup in 1961 which they lost a heart breaking 3-2 to SL Benfica.
In 1961,
just after he had won the Golden Ball, the club fell upon hard financial times and had no option but to cash in on their star
player and sold him to Inter Milan for 25 million pesetas/£142,000. Thus, Suárez became the world's most expensive footballer
at the time. It was an unfortunate time for this to happen, five days before the tragedy of the European Cup Final in Basle,
where Barça lost to Benfica.
The move saw him follow his mentor Helenio Herrera. Suárez became a regular in the Great Inter team that won three
Serie A titles, two European Cups and two Intercontinental Cups.
Suárez also played 32 games for Spain and scored 14 goals. He made his debut on December 6th 1957 in a 6-1 victory
over Holland and represented Spain at both the 1962 and 1966 World Cups. However his greatest achievement with Spain came
in 1964 when, together with Josep Fusté, Amancio Amaro, José Ángel Iribar and Jesus María Pereda, he helped them win the European
Championship. He played his final game for Spain in 1972 in a 0-0 draw against Greece.
Suárez subsequently began a career as a coach and has managed Inter Milan on three separate 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.
Coaching
Jobs:
1974-75 - Inter Milan
1975 - Sampdoria
1975-76 - Spal 1907
1976-77 - Como Calcio 1907
1977-78 –
Cagliari
1978-79 - Deportivo de La Coruña
1980-82 - Spain U21s
1988-91 – Spain
1992 - Inter Milan
1994
- Albacete Balompié
1995 - Inter Milan
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