Luis Suarez speaks out on Darwin Nunez Liverpool criticism after 'being told something spectacular'

Luis Suarez has opened up on his ‘spectacular’ relationship with Darwin Nunez and how he first became aware of the Liverpool striker.

The pair are currently away with Uruguay at Copa America in the United States, with their campaign set to get underway against Panama in the early hours of Monday morning back in the UK.

Former Reds striker Suarez, who now plays for David Beckham’s Inter Miami, is a Uruguay legend and the all-time leading scorer for his country with 68 goals. However, the 37-year-old is no longer first choice on the international stage.

READ MORE: Former Liverpool team-mates in legal fight over training ground incident in 2015

READ MORE: Liverpool know exactly why Virgil van Dijk is fuming at Euro 2024

Suarez hasn’t started for Uruguay since the 2022 World Cup, and has made just one substitute appearance for his country over the past 18 months. But he earned an international recall for Copa America after returning a whopping 14 goals and seven assists from 20 appearances since joining the MLS club.

While Nunez relinquished the Uruguay number nine shirt back to Suarez ahead of the tournament, the current Liverpool striker remains first-choice for his country. And he comes into the Copa America off the back of scoring a hat-trick in a 4-0 warm-up friendly win over Mexico, ending a lengthy drought which had seen him score just once from his last 13 appearances for the Reds.

Fortunately, he is in better form for his country, with that treble taking his total to eight goals and three assists in just seven appearances since the World Cup. He will look to replicate such form in the Copa America, having recently admitted he is at happiest when with the Uruguay national team, amid facing frequent abuse, criticism and scrutiny since first moving to England.

“I feel like my home is when I am in the National Team,” he told Por la jersey (Channel 10 of Uruguay), quoted by ESPN, last month. “That's when you get together with your people, you can talk to everyone, and you feel comfortable in the National Team. My family is close too; Every time I go to the National Team I feel like I am at home.”

Suarez, who is understandably Nunez’s idol, sees a lot of himself in the 24-year-old. And having followed his fellow striker since he first burst onto the scene with Penarol as a teenager, the former Liverpool star has sung his compatriot’s praises on the eve of Copa America and backed him to overcome his recent criticism.

"Today he is one of the best centre forwards in the world,” Suarez told AUF TV, quoted by ESPN. “I love how he plays and I love watching him.

"Since Darwin was in Penarol I had been talking to him, through someone else. There was a game in which he scored three goals that caught my attention.

“At that time it was said that he missed a lot of goals, but he also generated a lot. They criticised me for the same reason, but the important thing is that he always tried to overcome, he never gave up.

“I always saw special conditions in him. The forward has to be like that, the ambition, the desire to improve, the desire to get ahead of him.

"I had colleagues like Diego Forlan who always helped me a lot. I always chatted with him, I went into his room and he loved to have me come closer. He was always trying to improve, looking for advice.

“Darwin always came, approached me, trying to chat and ask me things to improve. He is a divine kid. For him to tell me that I am his idol is something spectacular.

“Since he arrived at the National Team he told me that as long as I was there, the 'nine' was going to be mine. That is something that one values a lot because it is a very nice gesture.

“I come here to compete for his position. We all want to do our best to win the Cup. Being here competing with him is something very nice."

Nunez has returned 33 goals and 17 assists from 96 appearances since joining Liverpool in a deal worth up to a club-record £85m fee from Benfica in 2022. Meanwhile, Suarez recorded 82 goals and 29 assists from 133 appearances in three and a half years with the Reds before leaving for Barcelona in a £65m deal in 2014.