Crossing the Line: My Story

Luis Suárez was a young boy already in love with football by the time his family moved from the countryside to Uruguay's capital, Montevideo. The guile and trickery of the street kid made an impact with the country's biggest club, Nacional, before he was spotted by Dutch scouts who brought him to Europe.

Suárez was lured from Ajax to Merseyside by another iconic number 7, Kenny Dalglish. From that moment, he terrorised Premier League defences, driving a resurgent Liverpool towards their most exciting top-flight season in 24 years.

But there is another side to Luis Suárez: the naturally fiery temperament which drives his competitiveness on the pitch. There was the very public incident with Patrice Evra of bitter rivals Manchester United, and the biting of Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic.

Luis Alberto Suarez Diaz was born in the Uruguayan city of Salto on January 24 1987. His family moved to Montevideo when he was seven. After several years of struggle he broke into the first team of local side Nacional, and then earned the right to take his chance in Dutch football - first with Groningen and then with giants Ajax, where he amassed a century of goals for the club and was named Footballer of the Year in 2010.

In January 2011 Liverpool paid £22.8m to take Suarez to Anfield, then the club's record signing. Suarez scored on his debut in front of the Kop, and proceeded to write himself into Merseyside folklore, scoring 82 goals in just 133 appearences. He finished the 2013-14 season with 31 League goals from 33 matches, sharing Europe's Golden Shoe with Cristiano Ronaldo, and being named Footballer of the Year by the FWA and Players' Player of the Year by the PFA.

On 11 July 2014, Barcelona announced that they had signed Suarez.

At international level, he is Uruguay's alltime record goal-scorer, and in 2011 he fired his country to victory in the Copa America.

Suarez is married with two children.