Suso (footballer)

This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Fernández and the second or maternal family name is Sáenz de la Torre.
Suso
Close-up of a young man with brown hair, wearing a Liverpool-branded white training vest over a red tracksuit top
Suso with Liverpool in 2012
Personal information
Full nameJesús Joaquín Fernández Sáenz de la Torre[1]
Date of birth19 November 1993
Place of birthCádiz, Spain
Height1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) [2]
Playing positionAttacking midfielder
Club information
Current team
Milan
Number8
Youth career
2004–2010Cádiz
2010–2012Liverpool
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
2012–2015Liverpool14(0)
2013–2014→ Almería (loan)33(3)
2015–Milan4(0)
National team
2009–2010Spain U177(5)
2011–2012Spain U185(0)
2012Spain U199(1)
2013Spain U208(1)
2012–2013Spain U215(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 24 April 2015.
† Appearances (Goals).

Jesús Joaquín Fernández Sáenz de la Torre (born 19 November 1993), known as Suso, is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for Italian club Milan as an attacking midfielder.

Scouted by English club Liverpool as a teenager, he made his professional debut there in 2012, playing sparingly and spending a season on loan at UD Almería before joining Milan in January 2015.

Suso represented Spain at various youth levels up to under-21, winning the 2012 UEFA European Under-19 Championship.

Early years

Born in Cádiz, Suso joined the youth team at Cádiz CF at the age of 12. He first began to gather attention after a man of the match performance in a pre-season friendly in 2009 at the age of 15. Suso went on to sign for the Liverpool Academy in the summer of 2010 from his hometown club Cádiz, rejecting FC Barcelona and Real Madrid in the process, saying "I was going to sign for Real Madrid but one day before it the phone rang and Rafa Benítez spoke to me. He convinced me that Liverpool was the club for me and after that I had to change my plans. I was going to come to Liverpool." He was described by Cádiz manager Quique González as "a boy with great quality, a good shot – his vision is great and his passing is outstanding."

Club career

Liverpool

Suso initially joined the Liverpool Academy on loan until he was old enough to obtain a permit to play for them professionally. On 19 November 2010, he marked his 17th birthday by signing his first professional contract with the Reds.[3][4] Suso made his first appearance for the first team in a pre-season friendly against Borussia Mönchengladbach on 1 August 2010, and he also took part in Jamie Carragher's testimonial match on 4 September 2010. However for competitive fixtures, he was immediately placed in the reserves, foregoing the Academy. In the 2010–11 season, he made the joint-highest number of appearances for the side with 17, and netted three goals as he adapted well to life on Merseyside. He followed this up with five goals in 17 games during the 2011–12 season, and he also made seven appearances in the NextGen Series.

Suso was included in the squad for Liverpool's pre-season tour of the United States and Canada in July 2012 by new manager Brendan Rodgers. He linked up with his team-mates just two days after winning the U-19 European Championships with Spain. He appeared in the second half of the friendly match versus Toronto, and impressed greatly with his all-round dangerous play and impressive shooting.

Suso on the ball for Liverpool in a pre-season friendly against Roma in July 2012.

On 20 September 2012, Suso made his senior Liverpool début in a Europa League match against Young Boys, completing the full 90 minutes and earning a rave review from manager Brendan Rodgers. He made his Premier League début 3 days later against Manchester United in a 2–1 defeat at Anfield, replacing the injured Fabio Borini at half time. He performed impressively, completing all his passes despite Liverpool being a man down. He then played in the next game against West Bromwich Albion six days later in the League Cup, coming on with 10 minutes to play and making an immediate impact by helping set up Nuri Şahin's second goal in a 2–1 win. He went on to make his first Premier League start on 29 September in a 5–2 win at Norwich City, where he assisted Luis Suárez's third goal.[5]

On 19 October 2012, Suso signed a new long-term contract with Liverpool, receiving praise from manager Brendan Rodgers for his "maturity and commitment".[6]

On 18 December 2012, Suso was fined £10,000 for a remark he made to Liverpool team mate José Enrique on Twitter, which the FA deemed homophobic.[7] José Enrique replied to these charges, saying the remark was "banter" and "just a joke".[8]

On 25 February 2013, after being shut out of the first team due to the signings of Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho, Suso put in a performance for the Under-21 team against Manchester United. His performance was not good and he acknowledged that on his Twitter account, he tweeted "Sorry about tonight.. I was having some stomach problems during all game but i [sic] didn't want to come off of the game... Again sorry!". The game finished 1–0 to United against a very strong Liverpool side that included Raheem Sterling, Andre Wisdom and Jonjo Shelvey.[9]

On 19 July, Suso scored the equaliser against Preston North End in a friendly which Liverpool eventually won. On 2 August 2014 he scored the second goal against Milan in the 89th minute in a 2–0 win in the final group game in the Champions Cup.

Almería (loan)

Suso (center) playing for Almería against Atlético Madrid in September 2013.

On 12 July 2013, Suso joined La Liga side UD Almería on a season-long loan.[10] He made his debut for the Andalusians on 19 August, assisting Rodri in one of the goals, but in a 2–3 home loss against Villareal CF.[11] In the following matchday he also assisted Rodri, in a 2–2 away draw against Getafe CF.

On 21 September Suso scored his first top flight goal, in a 2–2 home draw against Levante UD.[12] On 30 October he helped his side to end a wretched run of five successive defeats, assisting Marco Torsiglieri in a 2–1 away success over Valencia CF.[13]

On 2 November Suso assisted Rodri by putting a cross into the six-yard box and the forward slid in to meet it, who then scored the match's only goal (although highly-controversial) in a home win against Real Valladolid.[14] Late in the month he scored his second goal for the Andalusians, but in a 1–3 away loss against Celta de Vigo,[15] but was also fined for missing training due to oversleeping.[16]

Suso was then dropped to the bench in the following matches against Real Betis, Granada CF, Athletic Bilbao and Villarreal, only returning to the starting lineup on 26 January of the following year, also assisting Jonathan Zongo in the game's only goal against Getafe.[17]

Return to Liverpool

Suso was first recalled to a Liverpool matchday squad as they began their Champions League campaign on 16 September 2014 with a 2–1 win over Ludogorets Razgrad, although he was unused.[18] On 23 September 2014, in a League Cup third round match against Middlesbrough at Anfield, he replaced Lazar Marković in the 98th minute and scored his first goal for the club 11 minutes later as the match eventually finished 2–2. He also scored twice in the subsequent penalty shoot out–including the winner–as Liverpool won 14–13.[19]

Milan

On 12 January 2015, Suso signed a four-year deal with Italian club Milan, effective upon the expiration of his current contract with Liverpool which is due to end in July 2015.[20] Later it was agreed that he would join immediately after Riccardo Saponara joined Empoli on loan until the end of the season. Due to the early cancellation of Suso's Liverpool contract, Milan paid a €1.3 million compensatory fee to Liverpool.

He made his debut on 27 January in the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia, replacing Michelangelo Albertazzi for the last ten minutes of a 0–1 home defeat against Lazio.[21] Suso's Serie A debut came on 4 April, coming on alongside Gianpaolo Pazzini in place of Alessio Cerci and Mattia Destro in the 77th minute of a 2–1 win away at Palermo.[22]

International career

Suso in action with Spain U19 in 2012.

Suso has represented Spain at U17, U18, U19, U20 and U21 level. In 2012 Suso started every game during the U19 European Championships, where he won his first international honour.[23] He was also captain of the Spain under-20 side that competed in the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Honours

Spain U19

References

  1. ↑ "Suso: Jesús Joaquín Fernández Sáenz de la Torre". BDFutbol. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  2. ↑ "Official club website Liverpool FC Jesus Fernandez Saez". web page. The Liverpool Football Club. 2014. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  3. ↑ "Jesus Fernandez Saenz". Liverpool F.C.
  4. ↑ "Player Profile: Suso – Liverpool's Spanish flyer". ITV Sport. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
  5. ↑ "Norwich 2–5 Liverpool" BBC Sport. 29 September 2012. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  6. ↑ "Suso signs new long-term Liverpool deal". Goal.com. 19 October 2012. Retrieved 20 October 2012.
  7. ↑ "Suso fined £10,000 for homophobic outburst". dailymail.com. 18 December 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
  8. ↑ "Jose Enrique defends Liverpool team-mate Suso after he’s fined £10,000 by FA for ‘gay’ Twitter comment". Metro. 18 December 2012. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  9. ↑ John Drayton (25 February 2013). "FA to investigate after flares, smoke bombs and pitch invaders mar Liverpool v Man United Under 21 clash". dailymail.com. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  10. ↑ "El Almería se hace con los servicios de Suso, una de las perlas del fútbol español" [Almería signs Suso, one of the Spanish football wonderkids] (in Spanish). Almería's official website. 12 July 2013.
  11. ↑ "Valiant Villarreal open with win". ESPN FC. 19 August 2013.
  12. ↑ "Levante fight back for point". ESPN FC. 21 September 2013.
  13. ↑ "Almeria shock Los Che". ESPN FC. 30 October 2013.
  14. ↑ "Controversial win for Almeria". ESPN FC. 2 November 2013.
  15. ↑ "Celta fight back to end losing run". ESPN FC. 30 November 2013.
  16. ↑ "Francisco ‘indultó’ a Suso por dormirse" [Francisco ‘pardoned’ Suso for oversleeping] (in Spanish). Marca. 26 November 2013.
  17. ↑ "Almeria 1 Getafe 0". ESPN FC. 26 January 2014.
  18. ↑ Sheringham, Sam (16 September 2014). "Liverpool 2–1 Ludo Razgd". BBC Sport. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  19. ↑ "Reds through after true penalty drama". http://www.liverpoolfc.com/''. Liverpool F.C. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
  20. ↑ "SUSO SET FOR MILAN MOVE". Sky Sports News. 12 January 2015. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  21. ↑ "AC Milan 0-1 Lazio: Biglia sends 10-man visitors into last four". Goal.com. 27 January 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  22. ↑ Fenn, Alec (4 April 2015). "Palermo 1-2 AC Milan: Menez magic snatches late winner". Goal.com. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
  23. ↑ On 9 October 2012, Suso received his first call up to Spain U21 for their game against Italy. "Suso". UEFA.

External links

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