Luis Suarez continued his remarkable start to life with Atletico Madrid by scoring another two La Liga goals on Monday evening. He even broke a Cristiano Ronaldo record.The Uruguayan striker, who recently celebrated his 34th birthday, cancelled out Santi Mina’s opener on the stroke of half-time before putting Atleti 2-1 ahead in the 50th minute.Facundo Ferreyra netted a late equaliser for the visitors at the Wanda Metropolitano but Atletico remain eight points clear of both Barcelona and Real Madrid with a game in hand.Diego Simeone’s side are currently the strong favourites to win this season’s La Liga title following an excellent first half of the 2020-21 campaign.And Suarez, a summer signing from Barcelona, has made a significant contribution to Los Rojiblancos’ fine start to the seasonThe veteran forward currently leads the race for the Pichichi (La Liga’s top scorer award) after netting an impressive 16 goals in just 17 league appearances.
Per Opta, via Goal, Suarez becomes the fastest player to reach 16 goals for the same team in La Liga this century, breaking the previous record set by Ronaldo during the 2009-10 season following the Portuguese superstar’s £80 million move from Manchester United.
That’s a pretty remarkable statistic. It also makes Ronald Koeman’s decision to axe him from the Barcelona squad all the more puzzling.
Sure, Suarez wasn’t always at his world-class best last season and looked a little sluggish at times, but he still scored 21 goals in all competitions for the Catalan giants.
Keeping him at Camp Nou would also have boosted Barça’s chances of convincing Lionel Messi to sign a new contract.
Messi, according to various reports, was deeply unhappy after Barcelona unceremoniously offloaded Suarez in September.
The two players became close friends during their spell as Barça teammates and remain in contact now.
Not only did Barcelona upset Messi, but they also sold one of their best players to a direct rival.
And now Suarez is determined to ensure he inspires Atleti to the Spanish league title during his first season with the Madrid-based club.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what you call revenge.