Atletico Madrid manager, Diego Simeone, has disclosed that he immediately called Luis Suarez to convince him to join the Rojiblancos as soon as Barcelona put him up for sale last summer.
Simeone said he could not believe Barcelona were willing to sell Suarez, adding that he was stunned when Atletico Madrid’s hierarchy contacted him to reveal the Camp Nou club were offering the chance to sign the Uruguay striker.
Suarez was reduced to tears in his farewell speech to teammates and supporters after Barcelona made the surprise decision to offload him last summer.
The former Liverpool player went on to win the LaLiga title with Simeone’s side, scoring the winning goal on the LaLiga final day of the season against Real Valladolid on Saturday.
“I met a man. I expected nothing less,” Simeone told ESPN’s F360.
“I was very happy from the first day I spoke with him, I had already spoken with him when he was at Liverpool, in an effort for him to sign with us but he chose Barcelona.
“And when the possibility [for Atletico to sign him] appeared, the club called me and said, ‘what do you think about the possibility of Luis Suarez coming?’ and I replied, ‘are you serious?’ Don’t ask me, let’s go for it, let me talk to him’.
“When I spoke to him, the first thing I said to him was, ‘look, Luis, we need to win, and you want to win, the door is open’.”
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