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'Child-like Luis Suarez is capable of doing anything to win,' says the man who brought the Liverpool striker to Europe

Suarez is currently serving a ban for biting Branislav Ivanovic

John Nisbet
Thursday 02 May 2013 12:19 BST
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Luis Suarez played with a ‘dead or alive’ attitude in the Netherlands
Luis Suarez played with a ‘dead or alive’ attitude in the Netherlands

The Liverpool striker Luis Suarez "sometimes has the mentality of a child" when he plays football, according to the man who first brought him to Europe.

Henk Veldmate signed the Uruguayan from Nacional for Groningen in the Netherlands as a 19-year-old in 2006 and said Suarez's character was heavily influenced by his South American upbringing.

"He's a grown-up person but also, in the way he likes playing football, he sometimes has the mentality of a child," said the Dutch club's sporting director.

"That's the way he enjoys playing. If you compare the mentality and attitude to Dutch players, then in South America it's dead or alive. To do the best for your family – it's a way of life and a way of surviving."

Veldmate was speaking in a BBC Radio 5 Live documentary What's Eating Luis Suarez in the wake of the player having bitten Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic at Anfield last month.

The South American was charged with violent conduct by the Football Association, banned for 10 games and fined an undisclosed sum by his club.

Veldmate added it took him just 15 minutes to decide they had to sign the forward. He had travelled to Uruguay to watch another player but was so taken by Suarez he immediately changed his priority.

"He had everything you see today – he scored a goal and did some fantastic dribbles," Veldmate said. "Sometimes you think he is lucky with his dribbles – he starts something and you think it is impossible but in the end it works and he creates a chance and scores a goal. He dived to win a penalty, so all the things we see in Luis' potential we saw in that 15 minutes and most importantly we saw he was a winner."

Suarez's former Groningen team-mate Hugo Alves said that his will to win was evident from the moment he arrived at the club. "He is the type of player that once inside the box he is capable of anything to score a goal, to get the ball from an opponent," he said.

"He does anything to win," Alves admitted. "He is a winner. And because of his way of thinking, if he is in the heat of the moment, full of emotion, he makes these kind of mistakes.

"In the middle of an emotional game, he can vent it in the wrong way. Obviously this kind of thing [biting] shouldn't happen, cannot happen. It's happened to him."

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