Spanish club Atletico Madrid announced the signing of Luis Suarez from his local rivals Barcelona, with a contract that extends for two seasons, after the Uruguayan striker spent 6 seasons with the Catalan club.
Barcelona said in a separate statement that Atletico will pay 6 million euros in bonuses for the 33-year-old Suarez.
Suarez, who is third in Barcelona's scoring charts across the ages, left a season before the end of his contract with the Catalan club, and he will bid farewell to Barcelona at a press conference on Thursday.
Suarez will replace Alvaro Morata in the Atletico attack after the Spanish striker left on loan to Juventus with the right to purchase.
Agreement with FC Barcelona over the transfer of @ LuisSuarez9.
ℹ️ https://t.co/TKCcXFRsoE pic.twitter.com/pgJSChYN8F
- Atlético de Madrid (@letienglish) September 23, 2020
Suarez, who joined Barcelona in 2014 from Liverpool, won the Spanish League 4 times and the same in the King's Cup, in addition to one title in the Champions League.
He scored 198 goals with the team in all competitions.
Suárez put an end to a weeks-long nightmare after leaving the accounts of new Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman, who is seeking to rebuild the squad.
Despite his many injuries last season with Barcelona, Suarez scored 16 goals in 22 appearances in the starting line-up in the league, to finish fourth in the tournament's top scorer list.
Morata tops Atletico's scorer list with 12 goals.
💙❤️ @ LuisSuarez9, Barça legend
🙌 # 9raciasLuis pic.twitter.com/WHCeMW4C9p
- FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) September 23, 2020
Suárez became the third striker to move between Barcelona and Atletico in recent years, as he was preceded by David Villa, who joined Atlético in 2013, while Antoine Griezmann joined Barcelona last year.
The name Suarez was associated with leaving to Juventus and subjected to an Italian language test in order to obtain a passport from one of the European Union countries, after the Italian League champions reached the maximum number of players coming from outside the European Union.
But Italian prosecutors said on Tuesday they had evidence of tampering with the Uruguay striker’s language test.