The Uruguayan joined the Reds in a £22.8m deal from Ajax on a dramatic transfer deadline day, signing alongside Andy Carroll while Fernando Torres departed for Chelsea for a then club-record £50m swoop.
Suarez would score 82 goals in 133 appearances for Liverpool, including a then Premier League record haul of 31 goals in the 2013/14 campaign as the Reds narrowly missed out on the title. Yet the 2012 League Cup would be the only trophy win of his Anfield career before moving to Barcelona in a £65m deal in the summer of 2014. Set to turn 37 in January, the striker is still scoring goals for fun in Brazil with Gremio after enjoying successful stints with Atletico Madrid and Nacional after enjoying his best years at Camp Nou and leaving Barcelona behind.
And former Liverpool defender Martin Kelly is not surprised by what Suarez has achieved in his career, lauding the now veteran striker as the ‘best competitor’ he has ever played with.
“He (Suarez) is the best competitor I’ve played with,” Kelly exclusively told the ECHO, on behalf of Sky Bet. “If you had a game in the changing room, in the canteen, or on the pitch, he was a winner. “That’s what we were taught as part of the blueprint with the likes of Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard, who were my idols growing up, who were all winners.
“Luis was tough as a character and I learnt a lot of South American, his traits of being a top competitor on the pitch and what it takes to be at such a high level.”
Kelly’s own Anfield career was often derailed by injury, with the one-time England international making 62 appearances for the Reds after coming through their Academy. Handed his debut by Rafa Benitez against PSV Eindhoven in December 2008, he would join Crystal Palace in August 2014 in a £2m deal after finding his opportunities limited. An ACL injury suffered against Manchester United in September 2012, early in Brendan Rodgers’ Anfield reign, ultimately proved to be the beginning of the end for Kelly at Liverpool. He made his competitive return a year later, but was limited to eight further appearances for the club before departing for Selhurst Park.
Yet Kelly has no regrets about the ‘what could have been’ nature of his Reds career, insisting it enabled him to enjoy the best possible career.
“I can reflect positively on my time at Liverpool,” he said. “The blueprint of coming in as a young adult and having a long career in the Premier League to get a solid foundation. “Coming through the academy there, you’re surrounded by world class players, training with them week in and week out. So to leave and go down to London with my wife, it stood me in good stead to have the best possible career.”
Kelly’s senior Liverpool career was bookended with two title near-misses in 2008/09 and 2013/14, with the defender playing a bit-part role in each campaign as the Reds fell agonisingly short.
Considering his time at Liverpool to have fallen during a transitional period for the club, the 33-year-old is glad to have seen his former club win the biggest honours since Jurgen Klopp took charge of the club in 2015. “It was a transitional period,” Kelly conceded. “If you look back at that period for Liverpool, they were lucky to have the players they had at that time, like Gerrard and Suarez. It was a good effort to try and win the league.
“They have since gone on to continue to be where they should be, winning major trophies and playing in European football. It’s nice to have left the club and go back to see what position Liverpool are in now. It’s where they should be.”
Martin Kelly has revealed how Luis Suarez helped set the standards at Liverpool after joining the club in January 2011.
