Up in the VIP seats at Real Valladolid’s Zorilla stadium on Saturday, the home club’s president is expected although he has not been around much lately as his team sunk into deep peril of relegation.
When he is at large, you can hardly miss him: he was one of the greatest strikers of his era and he’s a sizeable presence these days. He is Ronaldo, the Brazilian World Cup winner and maximum shareholder at Valladolid since 2018.
On the pitch, the maximum threat to Valladolid’s survival – they have to win to stay in Spain’s top division – will be one of the great strikers of this era, leading the line for Atletico Madrid on a day that, if they hold their nerve, they can make history.
In Luis Suarez, Ronaldo will see much to admire and recognise, as well as, given Valladolid’s circumstances, plenty to fear.
Once upon a time, Brazilian Ronaldo’s career was prematurely written off because of injured knees and because he looked to be carrying too much weight.
He made light of that on his way to winning titles with Real Madrid, and the 2002 World Cup. Suarez, 34, has likewise come back from damaged joints and whispered taunts that had swelled around the midriff, to be on the verge of his fifth Liga title.
Eight months ago, the combative Uruguayan was told brutally his best days were behind him. Barcelona more or less spelt it out as they showed him the door at Camp Nou, keen to relieve their wage bill.
He had spent six years at the club, by the time he had collected his fourth Spanish title there, had become the best attacking partner Lionel Messi has ever known. The divorce with Barca was ugly, Messi furious about the way Suarez was discarded.
The stampede for his signature, however, was noisy. Juventus called. Atletico kept calling. Twenty Liga goals later, Suarez is their top scorer, figurehead for Spain’s champions-elect.
If league-leaders Atletico beat Valladolid they guarantee that for only the second time in 16 years the title will end up somewhere other than Barcelona or Real Madrid.
The last team to break that duopoly? Also Atletico. So miffed were Barcelona after that historic season, 2013-14, they went out and bought Suarez from Liverpool to boost their firepower.
How Barca have missed him, especially his inimitable will-to-win. La Liga’s gripping title run-in was a four-club joust for top place right up until the penultimate match day, last weekend, but then Barcelona fell away in a manner than has become typical in their first post-Suarez season. They let a lead slip.
So Saturday – the D-Day at the top – is a straight duel. If Atletico do not win and second-placed Real Madrid claim victory against Villarreal, Real would leapfrog their neighbours and retain La Liga.
It will be nervous. It was nail-biting last Sunday, when Suarez provided the perfect reminder of why Atletico’s head coach Diego Simeone leapt at the opportunity to hire him.
While Barca were busy capitulating at home to Celta Vigo, Real Madrid went ahead in their match at Athletic Bilbao and, for 14 fearful minutes for Simeone’s men, the top position Atletico have held for 24 matchdays of the season was in jeopardy. They went 1-0 behind at home to Osasuna.
Cue Suarez, to the rescue. "He's used to matches like this," Simeone purred of a recruit he so values for his dealing with pressure.
It’s a quality that Suarez has had to work on: few elite players are as notorious for the villainous ways they have reacted to high-stress situations in the past. There were the biting incidents, one of them in a World Cup game against Italy; there was the handball on the goal-line, in a World Cup quarter-final against Ghana.
The Suarez Simeone so trusts is the warrior in his mid-30s whose aggression is better channelled. Atletico equalised against Osasuna in the 82nd minute. Suarez then scored the winning goal with less than three minutes of normal time remaining, to keep the fate of La Liga in Atletico’s own hands.
They lead Real by two points – if the Madrid clubs finish tied on points Real would win on head-to-head results – and of their 83 points in total, Suarez’s goals and assists have been directly responsible for 21. “He has the status and the leadership to decide key moments,” says Simeone.
As for the motivation, Barcelona’s harsh farewell back in August supplied that. He will bristle with it when he takes the stage in front of a concerned president Ronaldo for the last 90 minutes of an epic campaign.
