Montevideo, 3 Sep: Striker Luis Su\u00e1rez will play his last game for Uruguay on Friday. Su\u00e1rez was emotional as he announced he was ending a 17-year international career after the World Cup qualifier against Paraguay at Centenario Stadium.
\n\u201cIt hurts to say it, but Friday will be my last match with my country’s national team,\u201d Su\u00e1rez said late Monday, unable to hold back tears at a press conference.
\n\u201cI am retiring because I want to step aside. I am 37 years old, there are a lot of talented players, and I know it would be difficult to get to the next World Cup.
\n“It is comforting to know I can retire on my terms and not have to retire due to injuries, or to not being called up. I want to say goodbye here, with my people. This is the ideal moment.\u201d
\nSu\u00e1rez debuted in 2007 and is Uruguay’s all-time leading scorer with 69 goals in 142 matches. He played in four World Cups and five Copa America.
\nHe helped to lead the team to the title at the 2011 Copa, where he scored twice in the semifinals and the match-winner in the final and was named player of the tournament.
\n\u201cIt’s very difficult, but I want to be relaxed when I play my last game with the national team,\u201d he said. \u201cI will be just as excited as I was for my first national team appearance in 2007 when I was a 19-year-old kid.
\n“Now, I am a veteran, an older player, whatever you want to call it, with an incredible history with the national team and I will give my life for the team on Friday.\u201d
\nIn the 2010 World Cup quarter-finals, Su\u00e1rez prevented Ghana from scoring an extra-time winner with his hand on the goal line and was red-carded. Ghana missed the resulting penalty kick, Uruguay won a penalty shootout and reached the semifinals for the first time in 40 years.
\nSu\u00e1rez was hailed at home as a saviour, but he was scorned at the 2014 World Cup when he bit Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini in their last group game.
\nIt was the third of four times in his career he bit a player. FIFA banned Suarez for nine games, the longest ban in World Cup history, and he missed the rest of the tournament and the 2015 Copa America.
\n\u201cMy fear has always been that my lasting image for my children and all Uruguayan fans would be of 2014,” Su\u00e1rez said. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Montevideo, 3 Sep: Striker Luis Su\u00e1rez will play his last game for Uruguay on Friday. Su\u00e1rez was emotional as he announced he was ending a 17-year international career after the World Cup qualifier against Paraguay at Centenario Stadium. \u201cIt hurts to say it, but Friday will be my last match with my country’s national team,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-247753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}