Former Barcelona player Denis Suarez is back in the city, and enjoying life again after moving to rivals Espanyol. Suarez, 29, had missed the entire first half of the season after being exiled by Celta Vigo President Carlos Mourino.
The entire case began with the transfer of Celta youth player Bryan Bugarin to Real Madrid, two summers ago. Bugarin shared the same agents as Suarez, who Mourino accused of touting their academy talents to Los Blancos, and demanding that Suarez drop the agency Intermedia Sports.
He refused, and after a season of public insults from Mourino at Suarez and denials from the Galician playmaker, the President decided he would not play this year. Initially he was separated from the group, and trained on his own without a ball, but managed to fight for his right to be with the group.
In a recent interview with Relevo, Suarez explained the beginnings of the issue.
“It was a bit of a tense conversation. As soon as I arrived and saw him, he told me to bring him an offer, to find myself a team because he did not want me in his sight. I tried to explain my situation to him, to tell him that I had nothing to do with it. If the problem was my agents, anything related to me would be discussed with me, but I also told him that a person must decide for himself which people he wants to have on his side and which not. I, the agents who I have been with all my life, did not want to leave them because someone else decided I should. I have already explained it many times, my father does not have to tell me who my partner or my friends should be. They are parallel things that can be separated.”
Asked what the worse part of it was, Suarez highlighted the witch hunt that Mourino tried to mount. Mourino had then accused Suarez of refusing to leave despite Celta giving him the chance to do so, something Suarez disputes that.
“The constant attack, week after week, calling press conferences to sling insults at me without any sense, going out and telling lies, saying that I am against the club, that the summer market arrives and lies are told that I am not leaving because I have not accepted any offer, which is a lie and I have already explained that.”
“The only offer I had was from Sevilla, who had reached an agreement with Celta for an exchange of Oscar for me, and it didn’t happen because of Sevilla’s salary limit.”
“Then, there was an option from Betis that I proposed to the club, not the club to me, which later when Celta entered into conversations with them asked Rui Silva in exchange. It is an illogical situation that was never going to occur. A newly signed goalkeeper with a three or four-year contract was not going to make an exchange for a player that you have publicly given denigrated for a whole season and who at that time had zero value. It was also said that if I had rejected an offer from Saudi Arabia and it is a lie, nobody presented that proposal.”
“The only one from the club that I spoke to was [Sporting Advisor] Luis Campos and we talked about it from day one, I wanted to continue in Europe and if I received an offer from the five major leagues I would value it and accept it, but absolutely nothing came. The clubs knew about my situation and none of them was willing to pay anything, as is logical after devaluing a player for a year and a half.”
The formal Arsenal midfielder reiterated what he had already explained in a Twitter thread – there was no basis to Mourino’s statements.
“Obviously those things he said publicly are lies. I urged him to reveal those supposed offers that I had turned down. It’s a lie and it’s as easy as calling Sevilla and Betis and asking how the situation came about.”
