Luis Suarez is enjoying another successful season at Barcelona. Josep Lago / AFP
Luis Suarez is enjoying another successful season at Barcelona. Josep Lago / AFP
Luis Suarez is enjoying another successful season at Barcelona. Josep Lago / AFP
Luis Suarez is enjoying another successful season at Barcelona. Josep Lago / AFP

Diego Forlan: Luis Suarez continues to excel for Barcelona — let’s hope his pool skills have improved


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South Africa, 2010. Our Uruguay team were away at the World Cup finals for five weeks. The length of the trip was positive because if you’re away for that long then you know you’ve done well in a tournament and we reached the semi-finals, but we were away from our friends and families for a long time as we moved around the country.

Some hotels were better than others and we had a lot of time to kill between games. One way we did this was by playing pool.

We’d have big competitions and Luis Suarez, myself and Edison Cavani would tend to play more than most. We would play for a bottle of cologne.

The other players would gather around the table and cheer. It was great for team spirit and even better for me if I won!

I have to say that my good friend Luis would always pay the prize when I did. He was honourable in defeat.

What I should also say — and I never told him this at the time — was that I had a pool table in my house in Madrid which I would practise on.

Maybe people look at Luis Suarez in a different way to me. He had three or four years where his outstanding talent as a footballer was marked by incidents for which he received a lot of criticism.

He’s human, he made some mistakes and he apologised for them. Some people will forget, others won’t.

What I’d say is that his desire to win was so strong that he reacted in ways which he wasn’t always proud of. He’s a winner, I saw it when I first watched him play a youth game for Uruguay.

A few years later we would be playing together for Uruguay. We would text and speak and we still do — be it about Penarol (my team) or Nacional (his team in Uruguay) or our careers.

He would let me know how he was doing at Ajax or Liverpool or Barcelona. Not bad clubs, eh?

People ask me what he is like as a person. Firstly, he’s a family man. If he had spare time when with the national team in Uruguay he would be straight to see his family.

I spent a lot of time with him with the Uruguay team and we would share planes across the Atlantic back to our clubs in Europe.

He is a good person, professional, happy, funny and positive for any team in the dressing room.

He is also in magnificent form. He’s scored a goal in each of Barcelona’s last five games and set up a goal in four of them.

He is the second highest scorer in Spain with 23 league goals from 28 games this season and 31 goals from 42 Barcelona games in all competitions. He has also made 17 assists, more than any player in Europe. Despite playing alongside the best player in the world in Lionel Messi and Neymar, who is another of the top five players in the world, Luis scores some of Barcelona’s most important goals.

He got the goal against Real Madrid in December, he scored in both legs of the Copa del Rey semi-final against my old team Atletico Madrid, the goal which drew the cup quarter-final level against Athletic Bilbao and two goals in the Barcelona derby against Espanyol.

On Wednesday he set Barca on their way to victory with the opening goal against Sevilla and he was again superb.

He has told me all about Messi and Neymar. One reason they get on so well on the field is that they are all mates off the field, the three South Americans from neighbouring countries. Their partners are friends too.

Barcelona was the right move for Luis. His in-laws have lived in the city for a long time, it’s a great city with a club which always wins trophies and, with better players around him, he has improved as a player.

Five years ago, Luis was all about goals. Now, he is a more complete forward. In fact he is the complete forward. He still has the killer instinct to score, but those three know that they are always going to have so many chances among each other that they are always going to score.

Luis turned 30 earlier this year. At 30 and 31, I had some of the best moments in my career, many of them playing alongside Luis in the World Cup finals.

I see him in his prime and full of confidence and consistency. His goal totals get overshadowed by Messi’s but they’re phenomenal. Luis scored 59 goals last season.

Mentally, he is good and full of confidence. Physically, he is good. He is in a team who can be the best in the world when they are in form as they are in now.

Barca have clicked at the right time. Even though they are not top of the league and sit behind Real Madrid, who also have a game in hand, they have the form and quality to beat Madrid this month when they meet on April 23 and to win the Uefa Champions League.

Winning one of the two will be considered a success for Barca, but whatever happens, Suarez has been a success yet again this season, as he has been in every season.

He might even be better at pool these days, too.

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
BMW M5 specs

Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor

Power: 727hp

Torque: 1,000Nm

Transmission: 8-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km

On sale: Now

Price: From Dh650,000

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Challenge Cup result:

1. UAE 3 faults
2. Ireland 9 faults
3. Brazil 11 faults
4. Spain 15 faults
5. Great Britain 17 faults
6. New Zealand 20 faults
7. Italy 26 faults

ALL THE RESULTS

Bantamweight

Siyovush Gulmomdov (TJK) bt Rey Nacionales (PHI) by decision.

Lightweight

Alexandru Chitoran (ROU) bt Hussein Fakhir Abed (SYR) by submission.

Catch 74kg

Omar Hussein (JOR) bt Tohir Zhuraev (TJK) by decision.

Strawweight (Female)

Seo Ye-dam (KOR) bt Weronika Zygmunt (POL) by decision.

Featherweight

Kaan Ofli (TUR) bt Walid Laidi (ALG) by TKO.

Lightweight

Abdulla Al Bousheiri (KUW) bt Leandro Martins (BRA) by TKO.

Welterweight

Ahmad Labban (LEB) bt Sofiane Benchohra (ALG) by TKO.

Bantamweight

Jaures Dea (CAM) v Nawras Abzakh (JOR) no contest.

Lightweight

Mohammed Yahya (UAE) bt Glen Ranillo (PHI) by TKO round 1.

Lightweight

Alan Omer (GER) bt Aidan Aguilera (AUS) by TKO round 1.

Welterweight

Mounir Lazzez (TUN) bt Sasha Palatkinov (HKG) by TKO round 1.

Featherweight title bout

Romando Dy (PHI) v Lee Do-gyeom (KOR) by KO round 1.

Company profile

Company name: Suraasa

Started: 2018

Founders: Rishabh Khanna, Ankit Khanna and Sahil Makker

Based: India, UAE and the UK

Industry: EdTech

Initial investment: More than $200,000 in seed funding

What drives subscription retailing?

Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.

The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.

The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.

The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.

UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.

That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.

Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.

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FIXTURES

Monday, January 28
Iran v Japan, Hazza bin Zayed Stadium (6pm)

Tuesday, January 29
UAEv Qatar, Mohamed Bin Zayed Stadium (6pm)

Friday, February 1
Final, Zayed Sports City Stadium (6pm)

MATCH DETAILS

Juventus 2 (Bonucci 36, Ronaldo 90 6)

Genoa 1 (Kouame 40)

MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League final:

Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports

Pharaoh's curse

British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.

Match info

Manchester United 1 (Van de Beek 80') Crystal Palace 3 (Townsend 7', Zaha pen 74' & 85')

Man of the match Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace)

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