{"id":1088723,"date":"2019-05-13T16:40:18","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T15:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1088723"},"modified":"2021-09-14T16:52:21","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T15:52:21","slug":"barcelona-luis-suarez-fc-groningen","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/barcelona-luis-suarez-fc-groningen\/","title":{"rendered":"How an accident sparked the career of Barcelona striker Luis Suarez"},"content":{"rendered":"

FC Groningen general director Hans Nijland has admitted he and his scouting team were lucky to find Luis Suarez in 2006 after initially heading to Uruguay to scout a different player. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Suarez joined Groningen as a 19-year-old, scoring 15 goals in 37 games during his only season with the Dutch club before moving to Amsterdam giants, Ajax.<\/p>\n

The Uruguay international has since spent time with Liverpool and Barcelona, becoming one of the most feared strikers in world football with 397 goals at club level to date.<\/p>\n

But Nijland has now revealed he and his scouting team were actually in Uruguay to scout another player before stumbling across Suarez.<\/p>\n

“I went to Uruguay with Henk [Veldmate] for another player,”\u00a0Nijland said<\/a>. “But when you are there, you also try to catch up with some other games. We had some time left and you never know what else you will encounter. I always say this: a searching dog always finds a bone.”<\/p>\n

Nijland then spoke of how Suarez impressed him at Nacional in Uruguay, before admitting the player himself insisted Groningen bring him to the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

“We were silenced,” he added. “Not even because he played so well, but because of his guts and personality.”<\/p>\n

“He passed three or four men and made a great goal. Then we immediately went for Su\u00e1rez.<\/p>\n

“You can expect some nervousness from boys of that age, but he didn’t have that at all. I asked him if he had ever heard of Groningen. He replied: ‘No, I have never even heard of the Netherlands. If you want to become a champion, you have to take me.'”<\/p>\n

Since leaving Groningen almost 12 years ago, Suarez has gone on to win 12 major honours in the Netherlands, England and Spain with Ajax, Liverpool and Barcelona, respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FC Groningen general director Hans Nijland has admitted he and his scouting team were lucky to find Luis Suarez in 2006 after initially heading to Uruguay to scout a different player. Suarez joined Groningen as a 19-year-old, scoring 15 goals in 37 games during his only season with the Dutch club before moving to Amsterdam…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":1087841,"parent":0,"menu_order":6859,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"FC Groningen general director Hans Nijland has admitted he and his scouting team were lucky to find Luis Suarez in 2006 after initially heading to Uruguay to scout a different player.","footnotes":""},"tags":[285],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1088723","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-notnewsnow"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"\nHow an accident sparked the career of Barcelona striker Luis Suarez | Squawka | EN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"FC Groningen general director Hans Nijland has admitted he and his scouting 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