LUIS Suarez highlighted his close friendship with Lionel Messi as he bid a teary farewell to Barcelona on Thursday ahead of his move to La Liga title rivals Atletico Madrid.
Messi had failed to dovetail with other top strikers such as Samuel Eto’o, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and David Villa but took no time at all to gel with Suarez, who became his best friend at the club as well as a prolific strike partner.
“When I got to Barcelona everyone said be careful with Leo, that he was the main striker at the club,” an emotional Suarez said at a news conference attended by Messi and fellow Barca teammates Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba. But in our time together we always tried to perform as well as we could and I can leave here feeling very proud.”
“It has been a crazy month, many things have been said and leaked that were invented, many things that made me angry. But everyone knows how good a relationship I have with Leo,” the Uruguayan added.
He leaves after lifting 13 trophies and hitting 198 goals to become the club’s third all-time top scorer.
