Barcelona have performed a dramatic U-turn over Luis Suarez’s future after the striker pulled the plug on his prospective transfer to Italian champions Juventus, according to reports.
The 33-year-old was deemed surplus to requirements by both Barca’s hierarchy and new manager Ronald Koeman, with the Catalan club keen to get his enormous salary off the wage bill as they look to raise funds and bring in fresh blood.
Suarez had held talks with Juventus, while Atletico Madrid and Ajax were also interested, but any possibility of a transfer now appears to be over.
According to Catalan radio station RAC1, Suarez’s move to Turin hinged on him getting an Italian passport via his wife, which would have meant he would not take up a non-EU spot in Juve’s squad.
Juve’s two non-EU spots are already taken up by Arthur and Weston McKennie, but Suarez could not get any guarantee that he would have secured his Italian passport before October 6.
That means Juve would have been unable to register him from either the Serie A season or the Champions League, and he has therefore rejected the proposed move to Italy.
Having been left out of Barca’s last pre-season fixture entirely, he will return to the squad that takes on Girona on Wednesday in a remarkable turnaround.
Koeman intends to give Suarez minutes and is willing to welcome him back into the fold if a transfer does not materialise, though he will onl play a backup role with Antoine Griezmann set to lead the line going forward.
For Juventus’ part, they are set to move on quickly in their pursuit of a new striker, with Tuttosport claiming they could lure Napoli’s Arkadiusz Milik to Turin after he rejected a proposal from Roma.
