I’m a very good friend of Stewie Griffin from Family Guy and he let me have a go on his time machine this morning. I sneaked around my future house in the year 2067 and after the shock of seeing me as a wizened face, baldy old man, somewhat like Garry Mac, with wispy, grey hair, stooped over a holographic ipad, I managed to spy on a holomail that I was composing to a friend in Alpha Centauri. (I also found out fairly quickly that scientists had finally managed to crack warp speed.) Apparently the Alpha Centaurians didn’t know much about football but even there, billions of miles away, they’d heard about Luis Alberto Suarez.
Darth Buck, my holomail friend from the future wanted to know more about the legendary man for a project that he was undertaking on a social science project at the Inter Galactic University of Alpha Centauri, about the most important Earthlings of the early 21st century. This is what my arthritic, veiny fingers wrote to him…
My Dear friend Darth,
You have asked an old man for his recollection of the most famous footballer of all time because as you know, I was there and I’m honoured to have been so. You asked specifically what Luis meant to Liverpool?
What Luis means to this day for all Liverpool fans is something difficult to explain to a foreigner/alien sixty years later. He was the symbol of the 2010's and if you were not in Liverpool from 2011 to 2019 you could never imagine what Suarez meant and still means to all of those on the red side of the city and billions of people throughout the planet and beyond.
From his arrival the fans began to love him like a son and almost immediately it became apparent that he was the man who would return Liverpool F.C. to their rightful place at the summit of English football.
Despite an illustrious past, the club had never won the revamped Premier League, nor a league title in 24 years and needed somebody who would be capable of leading the club back to the top of English, European and World football. This man was going to be Luis Alberto Suarez.
The years from 2011 to 2019 were unique and impossible to repeat. When he arrived from Ajax in the winter of 2011 and played his first game on the 2nd February 2011, the fans knew immediately that they were witnessing something special. And so it proved to be.
If you were in Liverpool at that time to witness the joy of the people when they won their first, second and third Premier League titles, becoming once again the most successful English side of all time, you would understand that some things are difficult to explain by words.
Suarez had a great social importance too. He became the idol of the people and many people living in the midst of a recession found a way to forget their problems thinking about the joy that the superstar brought to their difficult lives. Some people saw him as a liberator, somebody who could give them a reason to have courage and hope. I think that if some archaeologists in the year 3000 AD finds some "ancient" objects about Suarez, they will probably think that he was a sort of idol, something people worshipped. They wouldn't be far off the truth.
Suarez was almost everywhere in Liverpool; murals in the streets, on advertisements and his goofy smile shone on all kinds of souvenirs. Songs were sung in his honour, poems were written and statues were erected. My friend, he was everywhere. If you hated him, then you would have been better getting away from Liverpool. But nobody could hate him. He was a hero for everybody, he gave the joy of the first Premier League title to the people and a worldwide renown to the city, the likes of which hadn't been seen since a band called The Beatles rode to prominence in the 1960’s.
I have heard of many people whose thoughts, when they think about Liverpool, soon go to Suarez. A friend told me about a man in Tanzania, (a little known country in in those days, on Earth,) who when he heard the word England, said "What is England?", but when he heard "I am from Liverpool", said "Ah, Liverpool: Luis Alberto Suarez". Since I am from Liverpool, when I speak to foreigners about football and I say "I’m a Liverpool fan," they suddenly tell me: "Liverpool, Suarez".
He was simply the best football player ever. The way he played at Liverpool was something unbelievable. I am proud to say: "I saw him" and "I was there." Especially when he led our team to win three Premier League titles, three F.A. Cup’s, two League Cup’s and possibly most importantly our fifth and sixth European Cups, when over a million people swarmed to the city to celebrate with him.
I was lucky to be part of the joy of Liverpool and I was lucky because I saw Him play. All Liverpudlian’s and fans around the world should thank him for what he gave to us and to the city. The years when he played at Anfield are unforgettable and will cast a long shadow for all time.
Now tell me more about those famous Alpha Centauri nymphs and the strange pleasure orifices that make you…
