The internet is all a buzz with Luis Suarez. With the world’s fixation on both football and vampires, it is no wonder that Luis Suarez’s bite has been referred to as the “chomp heard round the world.” They say that any publicity is good publicity, and I usually agree; however, this is a time that I do not.
I don’t know what I find most disturbing: on the one hand, we have what some would consider assault occurring in—what is supposed to be—a professional arena; on the other, we have a grown man biting an individual, not once, but multiple times. Videos of Luis Suarez’s bites have gone viral, accumulating millions of hits. What I find most bewildering is that Luis Suarez is not just a typical player who made a mistake, but is a god on the futbal field.
Starting his careers in 2003, at the age of 16, Suarez quickly became known for his skills on the field. In the 2008-2009 season, Suarez was named the Ajax Player of the Year. The following year, he became his team’s captain, and the league’s top scorer. He was also named the Dutch Footballer of the Year and broke several league records. In 2011, Suarez transferred to Liverpool and helped the team make an amazing comeback finishing the season off with a victory, helping his team score the 2012 Football League Cup.
In 2014, Suarez became the “most frequent scorer of hat-tricks in Premier League history,” was named the FWA Footballer of the Year, was a member of the PFA Team of the Year, was the Premier League Golden Boot recipient, and co-winner of the European Golden Shoe Award. While these are exceptionally impressive, his biggest honor was the PFA Players’ Player of the Year Award (the only non-European to ever win the award). 2014 promised to be the best year for Luis Suarez—that is, before the biting incident.
Before we get to “the” biting incident, it is important to understand that Suarez has a dark past…filled with biting. On November 20, 2010, Suarez bit Otman Bakkal during a match between Ajax and PSV. Suarez was temporarily suspended and the media had a field day; however, everyone thought that this would be a one-time incident. However, on April 21, 2013, against Chelsea, Suarez bit Branislav Ivanović. The bite to end all bites, however, occurred in an international arena, with millions of spectators watching. On June 24, Suarez bit Italian Giorgio Chiellini, which led to the unleased fury of FIFA.
Two days after the biting incident, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee saw fit to ban Suarez from the rest of the World Cup. He was additionally suspended from the start of the 2014-2015 season and is banned not only from playing, but spectating in any stadium until the end of October.