Barcelona chief praises Luis Suarez after apology amid growing transfer rumours

Barcelona sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta has praised Liverpool striker <Luis Suarez and labelled him as ‘humble’ after his apology for biting Giorgio Chiellini.

Suarez was banned for nine international matches and four months of footballing activity after the third biting incident of his career when he sunk his teeth into Giorgio Chiellini’s shoulder in Group D’s finale at the World Cup.

Uruguay needed to beat Italy to advance to the knockout stages – which they did – but the result was overshadowed by Suarez’s bite on Chiellini. He was handed such a tough ban due to it being his third bite on an opposition player and for his awful excuse, claiming that he lost his balance and just made contact with Chiellini.

He has since been linked heavily with Barcelona and reports suggest that the Spanish giants will either pay £80 million or offer £50m plus Alexis Sanchez to Liverpool, but it is still in its earliest stages.

However, the comment from Zubizarreta at Ivan Rakitic’s press conference unveiling after joining from Sevilla suggest things are moving quickly behind the scenes. The fact that Liverpool knew nothing about his apology would also suggest that Barcelona had something to do with it.

“Suárez has shown he is humble enough to admit an error, which is very important,”he told reporters. “He has been humble enough to apologise to those he has affected, because it happened in the middle of a festival of football. In this case it’s the best thing a person can do.”
Suarez was directly involved in 43 goals in the Premier League last season; 31 goals, 12 assists.