Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has revealed that the club made a bid for Luis Suarez before his infamous biting incident at the World Cup this summer.
Luis Suarez’s move to Barcelona this summer was hardly a surprise after months of rumours linking him with a move to La Liga, but following a biting incident whilst playing for Uruguay at the World Cup against Italy – the Catalan club were left red faced as they signed – football’s most talked about and controversial player.
Despite this, Barca have vowed to help the former Ajax striker and Josep Maria Bartomeu, president, has discussed the move in depth.
Bartomeu claimed Suarez had offers from other clubs, but chose to move to the Camp Nou and did so before the incident with Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini.
“Barcelona made first contact with the player before the World Cup. I told him he was at the right age and experience to take the plunge,” he told CNN.
“We knew many years ago that Suarez loves our club, that he loves the city. As such, everything was perfect to accept Luis Suarez. We knew he had better offers, but Suarez decided to come to Barcelona.
“No, [the incident] it did not make us reconsider and we told him that after the incident. He knows it was wrong, he accepted it was wrong and apologised, and that was very important for us,” he said.