Atalanta, Fiorentina, Juventus. All those clubs have a chance to sign Luis Suarez as a free agent, and all of them have so far said ’no’. Surely, there are reasons for that: the Uruguayan striker is passed his best, he is 35 years old and he would demand a certain wage, but they might be something else. When his name comes up, everybody in Italy tend to remember the year 2020 and Suarez’s citizenship scandal which prevented his transfer to Italy. That year, he signed for Atletico Madrid and helped them secure a long waited La Liga title, after he was informed he is unwanted in Barcelona. But just before that, he was on the verge of Juventus move. But instead of Suarez, Fabio Paratici (former sporting director) got a call from the judge as he was charged with an offense of lying to the prosecutors.Luis Suarez offers himself to the Old Turin LadyItalian Serie A has strict rules about having only a certain number of non-EU players in the team, and in 2020, Juventus (and many other clubs in Italy) have already reached that quota. So, signing the Uruguayan was a problem, unless he was to become an Italian citizen. He had one advantage – his wife was Italian, but other things had to be done as well, so Juventus put the wheels in motion, and flew in with a private jet to take the oral exam proving some knowledge of the Italian language, visiting the international University of Perugia.(1.22) AL AHLY CAIRO (6.50) EASTERN COMPANY (15.0)What Juventus and Paratici (now the Spurs director) did know was that University of Perugia was very ’flexible’ towards foreigners who were to take an exam. In fact, they were so ’flexible’ that the Italian prosecution office decided to wiretap some of the examiners in an on-going investigation and nobody knew about it. A recording of Suarez’s test proved they had their reason for suspicion, as they prompted and cajoled him along to give the correct answers, skipping over errors. Suarez obtained the intermediate qualification needed for citizenship in 15 minutes, having only done the oral part of the exam, according to Reuters news agency. The university has denied wrongdoing, and chief prosecutor Raffaele Cantone said Juventus’s management “took action, even at the highest institutional levels, to ‘speed up’ the granting of Italian citizenship for Suarez”. Paratici was accused of lying to prosecutors over the affair and eventually, both the Uruguayan and Juventus were off the hook, but the transfer was ruined.Luis Suárez has offered himself to Juventus as per La Gazzetta dello Sport. The club would be looking for veteran strikers with a proven track record of the Uruguayan’s profile. pic.twitter.com/w2BSRx5ULt— The Football Index 🎙 ⚽ (@TheFootballInd) June 14, 2022 Other people, so called ’regular people’ are trying to get the Italian citizenship for years and have to wait for months to complete all the necessary steps, and they could now see one footballer getting ahead of everybody, and then blowing it infamously. People were very angry with Suarez, and that also may be another reason why Juventus, Atalanta or Fiorentina sporting directors haven’t called his agent
