Luis Suárez Miramontes ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}; 2 May 1935 – 9 July 2023<ref name=":5">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Nicknamed El Arquitecto<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":9">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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}}</ref>Template:Refn In 1964, he helped Spain win their first European Championship title.<ref name=":8">Template:Cite news</ref> Suárez originally achieved prominence as a creative inside forward, or attacking midfielder in modern terms, during his spell at Barcelona in the 1950s,<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":20" /> before reaching his prime as a deep-lying playmaker at Inter Milan, where he played a pivotal role in the success of Helenio Herrera's side, and was one of the primary creative forces in the squad, thanks to his skill on the ball, vision, and passing range.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":20">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Suárez subsequently began a career as a coach and managed Inter Milan on three separate occasions, the latter two of which on a caretaker basis.<ref name=":0" /> He was also at the helm of both the Spain under-21 national team, which he led to a European Under-21 Championship title in 1986,<ref name=":14" /><ref name=":10">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Luis Suárez Miramontes was born on 2 May 1935, in A Coruña, Galicia;<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":6" /> the last of three brothers,<ref name=":9" /> he was raised in the barrio of Monte Alto, where his family owned a butcher shop.<ref name=":15">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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He started playing football at Perseverancia, a local team administered by the Santo Tomás parish;<ref name=":16" /><ref name=":12">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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After coming through the club's youth ranks and playing for their reserve team, Deportivo Fabril,<ref name=":17" /> Suárez was promoted to the first team during the 1953–54 season,<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":17" /> as part of a squad that was managed by Carlos Iturraspe,<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":18">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Barcelona
In March 1954, Suárez joined fellow La Liga side Barcelona, together with team-mate Dagoberto Moll,<ref name=":17" /><ref name=":18" /> for a reported total fee of 600,000 pesetas.<ref name=":49" /> The two players were officially registered by the Catalan club at the end of 1953–54 league season, and as such deemed eligible to play in the Copa del Generalísimo of the same year.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":17" />Template:Refn He made his debut for Barça on 2 May 1954, the day of his 19th birthday,<ref name=":3" /> in a 4–0 victory over his former team Deportivo in the cup's first round;<ref name=":9" /> he then served as a regular starter for Ferdinand Daučík's side throughout the rest of the competition,<ref name=":9" /> as they eventually lost to Valencia in the final.<ref name=":9" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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During the 1954–55 season, the midfielder gained limited playing time with the first team,<ref name=":16" /> under manager Sandro Puppo,<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":19">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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}}</ref> At the end of the 1956–57 season, he won his first Spanish Cup with the club.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":31">Template:Cite news</ref>
Following the appointment of Helenio Herrera as Barça's manager at the start of the 1958–59 season,<ref name=":9" /> Suárez started performing at a consistently high level in the left inside forward position,<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":16" /><ref name=":22">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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However, during his stint under the French manager, Suárez's relationship with Barcelona fans progressively deteriorated, due to a perceived rivalry between him and Kubala;<ref name=":16" /><ref name=":19" /> as a result, the midfielder started getting booed by his own supporters in every game he played.<ref name=":21" /><ref name=":24">Template:Cite news</ref>
On 19 October 1960, Suárez scored a goal after a solo action from over the middle of the pitch in a 4–3 Fairs Cup win over Zagreb XI.<ref name=":14" /> On 9 November 1960, he scored 1000th European Cup goal in history in a First round 2–2 El Clásico draw. In December of the same year, Suárez received the Ballon d'Or by French magazine France Football,<ref name=":25">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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During his last season at Barcelona, which saw Enric Rabassa, Ljubisa Brocic and Enrique Orizaola take turns to sit in the dug-out, after Herrera had left for Inter Milan, Suárez did not win any trophy.<ref name=":19" /> Nevertheless, the team reached the final of the European Cup,<ref name=":9" /> where they eventually suffered a 3–2 loss to Benfica:<ref name=":26">Template:Cite news</ref> it was the midfielder's last game for the Catalan club.<ref name=":23" /><ref name=":24" />
Throughout seven seasons, Suárez played a total amount of 253 matches for Barcelona, scoring 141 goals.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":7" />
On 26 May 1961, five days before the final of the European Cup,<ref name=":26" /> Barcelona and Italian club Inter Milan reached an agreement for the transfer of Suárez for 25 million Spanish pesetas<ref name=":19" /><ref name=":23" /> (£152,000).<ref name=":31" /><ref name=":29">Template:Cite news</ref> He subsequently became the world's most expensive footballer,<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":29" /> having overtaken the previous record set by Omar Sívori in 1957.<ref name=":29" /> He also became the first Spanish footballer to play in Serie A,<ref name=":30">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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On 27 August 1961, he made his debut and scored his first goal for Inter Milan in a 6–0 league win over Atalanta.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In October of the same year, he suffered a knee injury in a Fairs Cup match against Köln, which limited his impact on the pitch during the rest of his first season in Italy.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He finished second in the final ranking for the 1961 Ballon d'Or, behind only winner Omar Sívori.<ref name=":32" /><ref name=":50">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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At the start of the following campaign,<ref name=":0" /> manager Herrera moved Suárez to the deep-lying playmaker role,<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":0" /> where he became one of the key players of the Grande Inter side that famously adopted a counter-attacking style of play.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":20" /><ref name=":16" /> On 10 March 1963, he scored three goals in a 6–0 league win over Genoa: in the process, he became the first Spanish player to ever score a hat-trick in Serie A, and remained the only one to have ever done so until Suso hit the same achievement in 2016.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At the end of the 1962–63 season, the midfielder won his first national title with Inter.<ref name=":31" /><ref name=":33" />
In the 1963–64 season, although Inter Milan lost the league title to Bologna in the final tie-breaker,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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On 26 September 1964, Suárez was a part of the Inter side that won the 1964 Intercontinental Cup, having gained a 1–0 victory after extra time over Independiente in the tie-breaking match.<ref name=":34" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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On 25 August 1965, Suárez took part in a friendly match against his former club Barcelona at the Camp Nou:<ref name=":10" /> at the 38th minute of the match,<ref name=":9" /> he abruptly left the pitch after being on the receiving end of boos from blaugrana supporters since the start of the game, and made a bras d'honneur towards them before reaching the exit,<ref name=":10" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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In May 1967, Suárez was forced to miss the European Cup final against Celtic due to an injury, being subsequently replaced by Mauro Bicicli:<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Inter eventually suffered a 2–1 defeat.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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During the 1969–70 campaign, his last season at Inter Milan, Suárez's performances declined due to his deployment as a sweeper:<ref name=":31" /> he scored just one goal in the league, as his side finished runners-up behind Cagliari.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Between 1961 and 1970, Suárez made a total amount 333 appearances for Inter, scoring 55 goals.<ref name=":0" />
In July 1970, Suárez was signed by fellow Serie A club Sampdoria,<ref name=":31" /><ref name=":41">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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After completing three seasons at Sampdoria,<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":0" /> with the club managing to retain their top-flight status in each occasion,<ref name=":43" /> he announced his retirement from professional football in 1973, aged 38.<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":10" />
International career
Suárez won 32 caps for the Spain senior national team,<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":1" /> having made his debut on 30 January 1957 in a 5–1 victory over the Netherlands,<ref name=":3" /> and represented Spain at both the 1962 and 1966FIFA World Cups. He was part of the Spanish side that won the 1964 European Championship.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":1" /> He played his final game for Spain in 1972, at almost 37 years of age, in a draw against Greece.<ref name=":16" /><ref name=":3" />
Coaching career
Suárez managed his former team Inter Milan on three separate occasions: during the 1974–75 season as a head coach, and then on a caretaker basis during the 1991–92 and 1995–96 campaigns.<ref name=":0" />
Suárez had two older brothers, Template:Ill (b. 1924) and Template:Ill (b. 1926), who also played football, having both started their respective careers at Deportivo La Coruña.<ref name=":9" />
He married his first wife, Nieves, in 1967;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Following a divorce, he married his second wife, Valentina (who died in 2020);<ref name=":46">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Later life and personal achievements
In June 1989, he received the Castelao Medal by the Xunta de Galicia for his notable contributions in the sporting field.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Since the early 2000s, he worked as a guest pundit for several sports programmes broadcast on Italian and Spanish television networks.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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In 2014, he started working for Cadena SER's radio programme Carrusel Deportivo,<ref name=":51" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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In July 2015, as part of the celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the FC Barcelona Museum, Suárez donated the Ballon d'Or trophy he received in 1961 to their collection.<ref name=":19" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Death
Suárez died on 9 July 2023, at the age of 88.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":8" /> The news was first confirmed by former Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti, who revealed the former player and manager had been hospitalized at the Ospedale Niguarda in Milan several days before his death.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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A public funeral was held on 11 July, at the Saint Joseph Calasanz Church in Milan: the service was attended by several fans,<ref name=":46" /><ref name=":48">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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