The Spanish soccer player Luis Suárez Miramontes (La Coruña, 1935), soccer legend and Ballon d’Or winner, died this Sunday in Milan at the age of 88, as announced by Inter Milan, the club where he had the most success as a player and who He trained in three stages. He debuted as a professional footballer at Deportivo de la Coruña before signing for Barça, where he played seven seasons before being transferred to the Nerazzurri entity in 1961.
As Barça defended at that time, the former striker left the club due to the entity’s financial problems, which were paying for the construction of the Camp Nou, and due to the incompatibility up front with Ladislao Kubala, a Barcelona legend who at that time was already he was in the final stretch of his career.
Suárez ended his time at Barça shortly after the final of the European Cup lost against Benfica in the 1060-61 season, the famous final of sticks. He closed his Barça journey with six titles (two Leagues, two Cups and two Fairs Cups) and winning the Ballon d’Or in 1960, the only one for a Spanish footballer in the men’s category. In 2021 and 2022 the awards arrived in the women’s section for Alexia Putellas.
His transfer to Inter, the first for a Spaniard to an Italian team, was at that time the most expensive in history. Under the orders of coach Helenio Herrera, Suárez became a soccer legend in Italy. The Milanese team won three leagues (1963, 1965 and 1966) and its first two European Cups (1964 and 1965) with the Spanish as the main star.
“The perfect footballer who, with his talent, has inspired generations. Goodbye, Luisito,” Inter wrote on their social networks. Suárez arrived in Milan to play for Inter in the 1961-1962 season and ended up staying in the city until the end of his days.
“Luisito” Suárez, brother of fellow footballer José Suárez Miramontes, was considered one of the most outstanding figures in Spanish football in the last century. In 1957 he made his debut with the national team at the Santiago Bernabéu and was one of the key players for Spain to win the 1964 Euro Cup, the first major title in its history.
‘The architect’, as Alfredo Di Stefano nicknamed him, played seven seasons at ‘Grande Inter’. “He took our colors to the top of Italy, Europe and the world,” declared the interista group on Twitter, along with a video with archive images of Suárez and in which a frequent phrase at that time is recalled: “If you don’t know what to do, pass the ball to Suárez”.
His career as a player ended in 1973, at Italian Sampdoria, to later undertake another as a coach at his Inter, among other teams, since he also returned as coach to Dépor in the 1978-1979 season. He was the Spanish coach of the lower categories and won the 1986 Under-21 Euro Cup.
In September 1988, he succeeded Miguel Muñoz as head of the absolute Spanish team, which he qualified for the World Cup in Italy’90, in whose final phase the team reached the round of 16. In 2001 he was awarded in Spain with the Gold Medal of the Royal Order of Sports Merit.
The footballer made Milan his city and bought a house there to spend the end of his days. His last wife, Valentina, died three years ago and he has a son from a previous marriage, who lives in Madrid and is a biologist. Inter Milan never forgot him either and on his last birthday, on May 2, he remembered him in a statement as “a refined number 10 who delighted at San Siro.”
“Absolute master technique and plays made him one of the best of his generation,” praised the Neroazzurro club, for whom he scored 54 goals.
