Top 10 things you need to know about Luis Suarez - plus video of him in action

By Mirror Football in Mirror Football Blog

Published 15:43 04/01/11

Harry Redknapp looks ready to delve into the market once more, and Luis Suarez, the nimble striker from Uruguay, seems to be his man of the moment . But what do we know about the Ajax star...?

1) His full name is Luis Alberto Suarez Diaz. Which should make the folks in the Spurs club shop happy when it comes to adding his name to the replica shirts.

2) He was born in Salto, Uruguay on January 24, 1987.

3) He began his career with Uruguayan side Club Nacional de Football, for whom Suarez scored 12 goals in 29 appearances.

4) He left South America for Europe when he just 19, signing for Dutch side Groningen in a deal that was worth around €800,000. His ten goals in 29 games brought him to the attention of some of Europe's biggest clubs, but he chose to stay in Holland and moved to Ajax for a fee of €7.5million.

5) The 2009-10 Dutch Footballer of the Year, he scored an astonishing 35 goals in 33 league games last season (49 in all competitions). As of the start of January, Suarez's tally for Ajax stood at a prolific 81 goals from 108 league matches (and 110 goals from 154 appearances in all competitions).

6) He was named Ajax captain at the start of of the 2009-10 season while aged just 22. He took the armband from Thomas Vermaelen, who left the Amsterdam Arena for Arsenal.

7) He has something of a reputation as a hot-head and has amassed almost as many yellow cards as goals during his time in Holland. He was also sent-off five minutes from the end of his international debut for Uruguay in February 2007, in a 3-1 win over Colombia.

8) Suarez scored six goals in Dutch Cup fourth round win over WHC Wezep in December last year. It would be fair to say it was a pretty one-sided affair as Ajax ran out narrow 14-1 winners!

9) You might well remember the Uruguayan for his part in the heartbreaking end to Ghana's World Cup, when he deliberately handled on the line to stop Dominic Adiyiah's last minute winner, forcing the tie into a penalty shootout from which the South Americans emerged triumphantly. One might imagine Suarez would have been humble in victory, even embarrassed by his blatant disregard of the rules. However, following the match he said, "The Hand of God now belongs to me. Mine is the real Hand Of God. I made the best save of the tournament." Can't wait for him to visit Sunderland and meet up with Asamoah Gyan again.

10) Harry will definitely have to put his arm around Suarez if he makes the move to the Lane - or maybe even fit him with a muzzle. He's currently serving a seven match ban for biting PSV Eindhoven's Otman Bakkal on the shoulder. We've heard of players being called tenacious, even dogged, but this might be going a tad too far. One of the Dutch daily newspapers, De Telegraaf , even went as far as labelling him the “Cannibal of Ajax”.

See the goals, the goalkeeping and the all important biting!