This was the professional debut of Luis Suárez in Barranquilla 15 years ago

There are no qualms to attend EL HERALDO. Émerson Acuña He interrupts his Sunday nap and agrees to go on the phone: “Aha, boy, is everything alright?”

With kindness, motivation and his peculiar tone of voice a little more serious than normal, he sacrifices a piece of his embrace with Morpheus and goes through the apologies that the journalist presents for the inopportune moment of the call: “Easy, easy, my ‘key’, no problem.”

P El Piojo ’is one of the players who 15 years ago was an eyewitness to a momentous fact in world football of which I had no idea: the professional debut of the Uruguayan Luis Suárez.

On May 3, 2005, with some 16 thousand people in the stands of the Roberto Melénde Metropolitan Stadiumz (approximately), the current star of the Barcelona from Spain and the heavenly team made their debut in the first round match of Libertadores Cup between Junior and his team, Nacional de Montevideo.

It was the 75th minute and the Uruguayan team won 2-1, when coach Martín Lasarte decided to send a 18-year-old boy who is now a world star to the field of play.

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“For real? Until now I have breakfast ”, Acuña admits. “I did know that the Uruguayan National goalkeeper that day was (Sebastián) Viera. Notice, I had no idea about Suarez. Bacano ”, he adds with pleasant surprise.

The current goalkeeper, captain and idol of Junior was the keeper of the Montevidean club at that time. Those were the days when he cut short with a beanie and had as a partner that young promise named Luis Suárez, a name that said absolutely nothing to ‘Piojo’ and his companions, who were trying to equalize and win the match in the final stretch regulatory time to qualify for the second phase of the continental tournament.

“We were involved in the story of a tie. Suarez was barely out in the ring. At the time it went unnoticed, he was debuting and did not attract much attention. In truth, we did not give much importance to the issue, we were waiting to win, “says Acuña, twice champion with Junior (2004 and 2010) before retiring in 2012 at Deportivo Anzoátegui de Venezuela.

Finally, Junior ended up winning 3-2 with two annotations by Martín Arzuaga, one of them in addition time (90 + 2). On that occasion, the figure was ‘el Toro de Becerril’, not Suárez. The now ‘Gunman’ entered to play as winger (see separate note) and had no time or options to hit the target.