Former English referee Mark Clattenburg has revealed how he as soon as thought Luis Suarez was higher than footballing icons Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. The 50-year-old referred to as the Uruguayan marksman a ‘proficient participant’, however claimed that he was a ‘tough participant to referee’.
Suarez is broadly thought to be probably the greatest strikers of his technology. Having plied his commerce for prime groups like Ajax, Liverpool and Barcelona, he has racked up 509 objectives and 277 assists in 846 club-level video games to date. He’s additionally the all-time goalscoring chief for the Uruguayan nationwide group, with 69 objectives and 39 assists in 143 appearances.
On GOAL’s Beast Mode On podcast, Clattenburg recalled a match-up between Ajax and Slovak facet Slovan Bratislava throughout the 2009-10 UEFA Europa League season. Within the first leg of the play-off spherical, Suarez scored 4 objectives for the Dutch facet as they trounced their hapless opposition 5-0.
Clattenburg stated:
“I am going to inform you one other participant who I discovered extremely proficient. Tough participant to referee, however a proficient participant, was Luis Suarez. I bear in mind refereeing him when he was enjoying for Ajax and he scored 4 in opposition to Slovan Bratislava. I got here dwelling to my mates and I went ‘I’ve simply watched probably the greatest gamers I’ve ever seen. Overlook about Ronaldo, neglect about Messi.'”
“I went, ‘Wow, this participant’s a participant.’ He went on to signal for Liverpool a number of months later. He was one in all them gamers that might hyperlink everyone. I feel Messi’s overtly stated that he liked enjoying with Suarez as a result of he did all of the soiled work for him,” Clattenburg added.
Regardless of having turned 38 this 12 months, Suarez has continued to be a strong contributor for MLS facet Inter Miami. He has racked up 10 objectives and 14 assists in 32 appearances within the 2025 marketing campaign.
“I discovered him simpler to cope with” – When Mark Clattenburg revealed the distinction between refereeing Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo
Ex-Premier League and worldwide referee Mark Clattenburg as soon as revealed that it was simpler for him to handle Cristiano Ronaldo on the sphere than Lionel Messi.
Talking on the Excessive Efficiency podcast, the 50-year-old former official stated:
“He (Ronaldo) was totally different. Messi was an unbelievable soccer participant; so was Ronaldo, however what I discovered with him is he used to elevate his group as nicely like, he had this simply one thing about him. All the things, he was main from instance. I discovered him simpler to cope with as a result of he spoke extra English, Messi did not actually communicate a lot English, so Cristiano was simpler to cope with.”
The Portuguese legend presently performs for Al-Nassr within the Saudi Professional League, whereas the Argentine maestro performs for Inter Miami within the MLS. The previous has racked up 4 objectives and an help in 5 video games, whereas the latter has bagged 25 objectives and 12 assists in 30 video games this season.
Edited by Aaryan Nagraj
