Luis Suarez announces retirement from international football, leaving as Uruguay’s top goal scorer

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Uruguay forward Luis Suarez announced his retirement from international football on Monday at the age of 37. Through tears, the forward said his final game with La Celeste will be the 2026 World Cup qualifying game against Paraguay on Friday at Estadio Centenario, Uruguay’s primary stadium and the home of the inaugural 1930 FIFA World Cup.

“I’ve been thinking about this and analyzing this. I believe this is the right time,” Suarez said on Monday. “I want to be relaxed when I play my last game with the national team. I’ll be just as excited to play as I was in 2007 when I played for my national team for the first time. That 19-year old kid is now a veteran player, an older player — however you want to call it — with an incredible history with the national team will give his life for the team on Friday.”

Suarez is Uruguay’s all-time top scorer with 69 goals in 142 appearances across an international career spanning 14 years.

The Inter Miami forward last played for his country in the 2024 Copa America third-place play-off against Canada in July. Suarez scored a 92nd-minute equalizer and successfully dispatched his penalty in the shootout as Uruguay secured a third-place finish. He was not on the game-day roster in Uruguay’s 1-1 draw against Guatemala in a friendly on Sunday.

He represented Uruguay at nine major tournaments and was part of their 2011 Copa America-winning side. Suarez scored four times at the 2011 Copa America, including twice in the semi-finals and once in the final, and was named Player of the Tournament as Uruguay won the competition for a 15th time and the first since 1995.

Suarez made his senior Uruguay debut against Colombia in February 2007 and was sent off in the latter stages of the game after receiving two yellow cards. He went to his first World Cup in 2010 and scored three goals in six appearances, including both goals in Uruguay’s 2-1 victory over South Korea in the round of 16.

He was sent off in the quarter-finals against Ghana after blocking Dominic Adiyiah’s goal-bound effort with his hand in the final minute of extra time, preventing a goal that would likely have eliminated his side. Asamoah Gyan missed the subsequent spot kick and Uruguay progressed on penalties to reach the World Cup semi-finals for the first time since 1970.

(Michael Steele/Getty Images) After scoring both of his side’s goals during the 2014 World Cup group stage victory over England, Suarez bit Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini in Uruguay’s final group game and was handed a nine-game ban from international football, ruling him out of the remainder of the tournament and the 2015 Copa America. It was the third biting incident of his career, having received suspensions for biting Otman Bakkal during his time at Ajax and Branislav Ivanovic while at Liverpool.

“We did go through difficult moments. There were many,” Suarez said during his retirement press conference. “Personally, it was worse for me after my massive mistake in 2014. But there’s nothing that I would reproach.”

The former Liverpool and Barcelona forward returned to international football to help Uruguay qualify for the 2018 World Cup, and scored twice at the tournament in Russia as his side reached the quarter-finals.

Suarez represented Uruguay at further four major tournaments: the 2022 World Cup and 2019, 2021 and 2024 Copa America. He was predominantly restricted to substitute cameos by Marcelo Bielsa at this summer’s tournament, making four appearances from the bench and scoring once in the third-place play-off.

He joined Inter Miami in December 2023 and has a contract with the club through to the end of the 2024 MLS season. He leads Miami in goals this season with 16, which is also tied for third-best in the league this year.

GO DEEPER

Luis Suarez: Biting, racism, on-field genius - the most divisive player in world soccer

Felipe Cárdenas contributed to this story.

(Top photo: Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

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