Why Luis Suarez won’t be joining Lionel Messi at Inter Miami this summer
Despite public courting by Inter Miami ownership, Luis Suarez will not be joining his close friend Lionel Messi in Miami… at least not in the immediate future.
Suarez, 36, is currently under contract with Brazilian side Gremio until December of 2024. He signed a two-year contract with Gremio after a highly-publicized return to his boyhood club, Club Nacional de Uruguay, in the summer of 2022.
At the start of this week, multiple reports in Argentina had Suarez as virtually a lock to join Messi at Inter Miami, even before this winter. On Tuesday, Inter Miami co-owner Jorge Mas addressed that ongoing rumor and mentioned Suarez’s closeness to and history playing with Messi and his other former Barcelona teammates Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba (the latter of which has not officially signed for Miami as of this writing).
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“I don’t know how Luis Suarez can leave Gremio,” Mas said in a roundtable with reporters on Tuesday. “But if he does we are free to talk to Luis and bring him to Inter Miami. That possibility would be there.”
Mas later clarified his comments at the MLS Board of Governors meeting in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.
“Luis Suárez is a Gremio player,” Mas said. “That’s not up to me, he’s under contract at Gremio with a release clause. He’s been an amazing player, but there’s nothing for me to talk about if he’s a Gremio player.”
Nonetheless, Mas’ initial statements on Tuesday sent the South American media into a frenzy. ESPN Uruguay reported that Suarez was willing to pay Gremio $10 million to terminate his contract. According to that report, Gremio refused and instead told Suarez that they wouldn’t allow him to play for any other club in 2023.
This would be the second reported attempt by Suarez to end his relationship with Gremio. In June, reports surfaced in South America that Suarez was planning to abruptly retire as a player due to pain in his right knee. Reporters then speculated that Suarez was doing this in order to terminate his contract prematurely, and thus, be free to join Inter Miami.
Gremio’s vice president Paulo Caleffi later refuted those reports.
“What I can assure the (Gremio) fans is that the news of Luis Suárez approaching Gremio’s management to announce his retirement never existed. That’s simply it,” said Caleffi in June.
Suarez responded to the ensuing drama by scoring Gremio’s third goal in a 3-1 win over America MG on June 22. Suarez celebrated with a hand gesture that was clearly meant to silence all of the rumors.
Rodrigo Romano is a journalist with Teledoce in Uruguay and one of the most recognizable football commentators for DirecTV Uruguay. He is seen as a reliable source for information on Suarez. His tweet on Tuesday evening halted all speculation about Suarez’s future.
Romano’s report, in part, was that Suarez had a contract until December of 2024, plus a $70 million release clause. He also reported that Inter Miami would risk a court battle with Gremio via FIFA if the MLS side continued to push to sign Suarez.
“I believe that Inter Miami pumped the brakes a bit on signing Luis,” Romano told The Athletic on Wednesday. “He can not sign a pre-contract agreement until the six-month period before his contract expires. That would be July of 2024. That’s why I reported that. I was told that he’s not leaving Gremio right now, maybe next year. Gremio is committed to keeping Suarez because of how well positioned they are in the Copa Brazil and in the Brasileirão.”
Suarez, despite a knee problem that Gremio’s medical staff confirmed has become an issue, has played very well for Gremio lately. Romano reported that Gremio is close to earning up to $25 million if they’re crowned champions of the Copa Brazil. Suarez is Gremio’s captain and as such is an important part of their Copa Brazil campaign.
“Imagine the problems that Gremio would have internally if they let him leave now,” Romano said. “My understanding is that this is being pushed by the Mas brothers and not Inter Miami’s sporting department, who believe that this is not the right time to sign him. There are plans to sign him in the future, but no one is going to pay $70 million to recruit a 36-year-old player, no matter the success or name of the player.”
However, Romano said there is some validity to reports that Suarez attempted to use a knee injury as a way to force his way out of the Brazilian club.
“Clearly he tried to use (the knee injury) as a way to try to leave Gremio quickly,” said Romano, who also said that the club will not allow Suarez to receive medical treatment on his knee in Barcelona, where Suarez’s preferred specialist Ramón Cugat is based.
“If he wants to receive treatment on his knee he’ll have to do it in Porto Alegre,” Romano said.
Suarez doesn’t have an agent. He acts on his own behalf although he does have a team of legal advisors that review his contracts. That’s important to note because it was Suarez who decided to sign for Gremio through 2024, doing so when Messi was still a Paris Saint-Germain player. At the time, Messi’s future options were thought to be in Saudi Arabia or perhaps a romantic return to Barcelona. Inter Miami was an option for Messi, as well, but surely not in 2023.
If Suarez, who is among the people closest to Messi, signed with Gremio for two years, that may indicate that Messi made his decision to come to Miami nearly at the last minute. Busquets has signed. Alba’s signing will be made official soon. Suarez, for now, is the odd man out.
“This has everything to do with his relationship with Messi. They want to end their careers together,” said Romano. “We’ll see if Inter Miami can give them that satisfaction. But there’s a contract that has to be respected. A player can’t say ‘I’ll leave when I want.’ They have a responsibility. Luis doesn’t see it like that. He shouldn’t have signed for two years with Gremio. That’s his mistake. That’s a planning mistake on his part.”
(Photo: SILVIO AVILA/AFP via Getty Images)
