Inter Miami’s star-studded roster just added another modern-day talent to the group.
Luis Suarez has joined the Herons on a one-year deal through 2024, Inter Miami announced Friday. The 36-year-old most recently played in Brazil’s Serie A, scoring 26 goals, registering 17 assists, and lifting the Campeonato Gaúcho and Recopa Gaúcha titles.
“We are happy to welcome world class striker Luis Suarez to our club. Luis is a fierce competitor whose winning drive embodies what we want out of our players. We promised our fans we would pursue the world’s best players to build a squad that can compete at the highest echelons in the Americas. Coming off an award-winning season in Brazil, Luis will be a key addition to our roster. We will continue to be ambitious and always strive to pursue the Freedom to Dream,” said Managing Owner Jorge Mas.
Suarez has enjoyed a stellar club career which featured previous stops at Barcelona, Liverpool, Atletico Madrid, and Ajax. He lifted the UEFA Champions League once, La Liga on four occasions, the FIFA Club World Cup once, and the UEFA Super Cup once.
In total, Suarez has won over 20 domestic titles and cups during his career. He’s also earned 138 caps with the Uruguayan national team, scoring 68 goals and winning the 2011 Copa America.
His move to Inter Miami will reunite him with former Barcelona teammates Lionel Messi, Jordi Alba, and Sergio Busquets. Suarez is set to fill the void left by Josef Martinez and compete for the starting position alongside Leonardo Campana.
“I’m very happy and excited to take on this new challenge with Inter Miami,” Suarez said. “I can’t wait to get started, and I’m ready to work to make the dream of winning more titles with this great Club a reality. I’m optimistic about what we can achieve together with our shared ambition.
“I will give my all to bring joy to these great fans I’ve heard so much about while I wear Inter Miami colors, and look forward to reuniting with great friends and players. I’m also eager to meet my new teammates and coaches,” he added.
Despite lifting its first trophy in franchise history, Inter Miami failed to make the MLS Cup Playoffs in 2023 under Tata Martino.
As with this summer can Inter Miami keep their stars healthy? Of course having them at the beginning of the season should allow Tata to rotate them more instead of trying desperately to get out of the hole the original roster put them in.
But can he rotate them enough? One thing MLS has not addressed isn’t just “fixture congestion” but what’s grown into outright fixture overload. MLS squads are still comparatively small squads with limited depth but now they’re in CONCACAF Champions League, the US Open Cup, Leagues Cup, and the playoffs, and just for giggles the Miami brass decided to add themselves a world tour just to start the season. And obviously US Soccer is not interested in allowing MLS to cut that load by dumping the US Open.
That’s a lot…especially when you consider the International calendar only adds to that, and that calendar includes Copa America this year. And Suarez and Messi will be turning 37 this year.
It’s undoubtedly going to be fun watching this Miami squad when their key players are healthy and available, but you wonder how often that’s going to be. At the very least Tata is going to have to decide what trophies he’s interested in winning because there is just about zero chance Miami has the legs to compete in them all.
Excellent point of roster size. Besides salary cap increases the owners should be rallying for increased roster size. Go from 28, to 32, then 35. This is the only way to compete in various Cups and not wear out players with international call up and congested MLS schedules. You see the disparity when and MLS team comes up against a top LigaMX club vast depth.
Lalas had a great comment on MLS buying USL to go with Garbers statements yesterday about MLS future growth
But of course rather than actually address the root causes (roster size and money grab Leagues Cup) they just try to walk away from the Open Cup. Tired of roster congestion, perhaps you shouldn’t pause your league for a month to compete against Liga Mx. Want your young players to play competitive games expand the rosters so they can play Open Cup under first team banner or I don’t know don’t pull all you Reserve teams out of USL in the first place.
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Q: there’s a reason trebles are so special, they’re hard to win. Inter doesn’t need to win every match and every comp. If you’re trying to win CCL, Open Cup, Leagues Cup, Supporters Shield, and MLS Cup with your first team every night you might have trouble. Pick your priorities that’s what everyone has to do.
JR-
For sure, but Tata’s probably going to have to be pickier than fans and management would like. It’s one thing to factor workload for guys who are 25 or 28…when you’re talking guys who are 37, you’ve got to be especially careful how many miles you put on their legs. I doubt once Miami’s qualified for the playoffs he goes particularly hard for the Supporter’s Shield, for instance, and US Soccer can squawk all they want but it certainly won’t be a Miami A-squad arriving for at least the early rounds of the US Open. And does Tata go after Leagues Cup this year…or does he use July to give his older guys a midseason break? Last year he got the Leagues Cup trophy…but it cost his squad a shot at the playoffs, too.
I imagine Miami will really want the CONCACAF Champions League because that gets them the Club World Cup, but between that and qualifying for the playoffs my guess would be that’ll be the end of Tata’s ambitions.
MLS/Garber are complaining about a problem they’ve willfully created and can easily be remedied, but they refuse to address. The current situation is clearly unsustainable. As stated above, expand rosters, substantially raise the salary cap needlessly bogging down MLS. Think we’d soon see a better product on the field, champion’s league hardware and more credibility- eyes on the league.
Miami going for it all this season. Which makes sense. Messi will be gone in a year and a half.
No doubt that should give Miami some bite in attack.
Doh!!
🤣