Luis Suarez Miramontes

Luis Suárez Miramontes, better known as Luis Suárez (La Coruña, Galicia, May 2, 1935) is a Spanish former soccer player and coach. He is recognized as one of the greatest figures in Spanish football in the XX century, and was the winner of the Ballon d'Or in the 1960 edition.

He began his career at Deportivo de La Coruña, where he played inside left. In 1954 he was hired by FC Barcelona, where he stayed for seven seasons and for which he won two leagues, two Generalissimo Cups and two Fairs Cups. In 1961 he was one of the first Spaniards to sign for a foreign team, Inter Milan, in a transfer that at the time was the most expensive in football history, and he developed a prolific career with two European Cups (1964 and 1965) and three national championships over nine seasons. Between 1970 and 1973 he played for U.C. Sampdoria, retiring at the age of 38.

At international level, he has been called up by the Spanish team 32 times and has scored fourteen goals. He was part of the squad that won Euro 1964 and played in the 1962 and 1966 World Cups.

After hanging up his boots, he settled in Italy as a manager for various Serie A clubs, returning to Spain in 1978 to manage Deportivo de la Coruña. The following year he was hired by the Royal Spanish Football Federation: he has been technical director of the lower categories from 1980 to 1988, winning the 1986 Under-21 Euro Cup, and absolute coach from 1988 to 1991.

Luis Suárez is the first Spaniard by birth to have won the Ballon d'Or. For 61 years he was the only Spanish person to win it until Alexia Putellas' victory in the women's category in 2021.

Trajectory

He was born in the city of La Coruña, on Avenida de Hércules, in the Monte Alto neighborhood. He was the brother of the also soccer player José Suárez Miramontes.

Player

Suarez with the "Great Inter" T-shirt

He took his first steps in soccer with the Perseverancia team, from the parish of Santo Tomás. His first professional team was the Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña, with which he made his debut in 1953.

In 1954 he was transferred to Barcelona, where he played seven seasons in which he won six titles: two Spanish Leagues, two Spanish Cups and two Fairs Cups, as well as the Ballon d'Or in 1960. His last game with the blaugrana shirt was the 1961 European Cup final played in Bern, Switzerland (the first final played by the club in this competition), with the result of Benfica 3–2 Barcelona.

Suarez in the Sampdoria

In 1961 he was transferred to Inter Milan, becoming the first Spanish footballer to be signed by an Italian club. His transfer was the most expensive in the history of football up to that date and was made for the equivalent at the time of 204,000 euros. At Inter Milan he played ten seasons, and won under the orders of coach Helenio Herrera, the main architect of his signing for the Lombard club, seven titles spread over three Scudetti or Italian leagues, two European Cups and two consecutive Intercontinental Cups, leaving the nickname "Grande Inter" for history, a nickname with which the Nerazurri team began to be another " big European".

Absolute international

He made his debut with the Spanish National Team on January 30, 1957 at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium against the Netherlands, which they beat 5–1. In total, he was capped 32 times, scoring 13 goals and was one of the bastions of the first great success obtained by the team, with the victory at Euro 1964, held in Spain.

Coach

He made his debut as head coach in 1974 at Internazionale, which he directed during the 1974-75 season. His debut on the bench in Spain was in the 1978/79 season, in which he directed Deportivo de la Coruña, which played in the Second Division. He arrived at the club on matchday 10 after the dismissal of the previous coach, not achieving the objective of promotion, for which he did not renew at the end of the season.

National coach

In 1980, the Royal Spanish Football Federation appointed him technical director of the lower categories of the Spanish team and coach of the sub-21, with which he won the European Championship in 1986. He remained in office from 1980 to 1988, the year in which he was appointed as the absolute national coach.

He was the national coach from 1988 to 1991, brilliantly qualifying for the 1990 World Cup in Italy, in which Spain was eliminated in the round of 16. After the World Cup, the irregular qualifying phase for Euro 1992 provoked widespread criticism from the press, leading to his dismissal on April 29, 1991. Vicente Miera took over as head of the national team, but fails to qualify Spain for Euro 1992, the last major tournament to date that the Spanish team loses.

Records and other data

• It is the only Spanish footballer of birth that has been distinguished with the Golden Ball, won in 1960 with the FC Barcelona. In addition, he was nominated for the award eight consecutive times between 1958 and 1965.
• In 1961, his transfer from Barcelona to the Inter Milan for 250 million lire, was the most expensive of the history to that date, the equivalent of 204,000 euros.
• It was with Chus Pereda the first footballer of history to be champion of the European Cup and the Euro Cup, and one of the three Spaniards to the present day (together with Fernando Torres and Juan Mata) to achieve it in the same season (Copa de Europa 1964 and Eurocopa 1964). This milestone was also achieved by the Dutch Hans Van Breukelen, Berry Van Aerle, Ronald Koeman, Gerald Vanenburg and Wim Kieft (PSV Eindhoven), in 1988, the French Nicolás Anelka and Christian Karembeu (Real Madrid), in 2000 and the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe (Real Madrid), in 2016.
• It was the only Spanish footballer to achieve consecutively, two European Cups and two Intercontinental Cups (temporaries 1963/64 and 1964/65), until after the disappearance of the intercontinental tournament, the feat was matched by Marco Asensio (temporaries 2016-17 and 2017-18) and surpassed by Lucas-16 Carvajal, Sergio Ramos, Nacho Fernández, Kikolla
• He served as the technical secretary of the Inter de Milan between 1995 and 2002, being one of the main architects of the Iván Zamorano and Ronaldo Nazario tabs by the club lombardo in 1996 and 1997, respectively.
• Luis Alberto Suárez, the current player of the National Football Club, was named in honor of the Spanish football player.

Statistics

Clubs

As a player

Updated to end of sports career.

Club	Div.	Season (1)	League		Cups national(2)		Cups international(3)		Total (4)		Media Shotgun
			Part.	Goles	Part.	Goles	Part.	Goles	Part.	Goles
R. C. D. La Coruña SpainSpain	1. a	1953-54	17	3	-	-	-	-	17	3	0.18
C. F. Barcelona SpainSpain	1. a	1953-54	-	-	7	-	-	-	7	0	0
		1954-55	6	3	1	1	-	-	7	4	0.57
S. D. La España Industrial SpainSpain	2. a	1954-55	8	7	-	-	-	-	8	7	0.88
C. F. Barcelona SpainSpain	1. a	1955-56	17	5	2	-	-	-	19	5	0.26
		1956-57	21	13	2	-	-	-	23	13	0.57
		1957-58	12	2	6	5	2	2	20	9	0.45
		1958-59	26	14	9	6	1	-	36	20	0.56
		1959-60	23	13	2	-	11	1	36	14	0.39
		1960-61	17	10	-	-	11	5	28	15	0.54
	Total club		122	60	29	12	25	8	176	80	0.45
Inter de Milan ItalyItaly	1. a	1961-62	27	11	-	-	5	4	32	15	0.47
		1962-63	29	8	1	-	-	-	30	8	0.27
		1963-64	26	3	1	-	9	1	36	4	0.11
		1964-65	29	8	3	1	12	2	44	11	0.25
		1965-66	27	5	2	-	9	-	38	5	0.13
		1966-67	32	3	2	1	9	1	43	5	0.12
		1967-68	29	2	9	1	-	-	38	3	0.08
		1968-69	29	1	-	-	-	-	29	1	0.03
		1969-70	28	1	5	1	10	1	43	3	0.07
	Total club		256	42	23	4	49	9	333	55	0.17
U. C. Sampdoria ItalyItaly	1. a	1970-71	28	5	3	2	-	-	31	7	0.23
		1971-72	27	4	4	1	-	-	31	5	0.16
		1972-73	8	-	3	1	-	-	11	1	0.09
	Total club		63	9	10	4	0	0	73	13	0.18
Total career			466	121	62	20	79	17	627	158	0.25
(1) High seasons like Golden Ball (It is awarded at the end of natural year, this is in the next season, the one noted). (2) Includes data from Copa del Rey (1953-61) / Coppa Italia and play for the league title. (3) Includes Fair Cup data (1957-62 and 1969-70); European Cup (1959-67), Intercontinental Cup (1964-66). (4) It does not include data from friendly parties.

As a coach

Clubs
Club	Period	Country
Inter de Milan	1975
U. C. Sampdoria	1975
SPAL	1975-76
Like	1976-77
Cagliari	1977-78
Deportivo de la Coruña	1978-79
Inter de Milan	1992
Albacete Balompié	1994
Inter de Milan	1995
Selects
Equipment	Period	Country
Spain sub-21	1980-1988
Spain	1988-1991

Honours of Prizes

As a player

National titles

Title	Club	Year
Cup	C. F. Barcelona	1957
League Championship		1959
Cup		1959
League Championship		1960
League Championship	F. C. Internazionale	1963
League Championship		1965
League Championship		1966

International Titles

(*) Including selection

Title	Equipment	Year
Fair Cup	C. F. Barcelona	1958
Fair Cup		1960
European Cup	F. C. Internazionale	1964
Euro	Spain	1964
European Cup	F. C. Internazionale	1965

Individual awards

Awards

Distinction	Year
Gold Medal - Royal Sports Merit Order	2001

Filmography

• TVG biographical interview (2-5-2015), "Luis Suárez, 80 anniversary" in crtvg.es
• UEFA Report (15-5-2013), "Luis Suárez, rememorating the Euro Cup 1964" in uefa.com