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BARCELONA: Atlético de Madrid have signed forward Luis Suárez from Barcelona, Spanish clubs said on Wednesday, ending his six-year term at Camp Nou.
The Barça statement said Atlético will pay the Catalans 6 million euros ($ 7 million) in bonus payments to sign the 33-year-old.
The Uruguayan striker, who is Barça’s third all-time top scorer with 198 goals in all competitions, had one year left on his contract with the club.
“Atlético de Madrid and Barcelona have reached an agreement for the transfer of Luis Suárez, subject to a medical and formal agreement of a new contract for the Uruguayan forward with our club,” Atlético said in their statement.
Suárez will give a farewell press conference on Thursday.
Barça added: “Barcelona wants to publicly thank the player for his commitment and wish him every success in the future.”
Suárez will replace Álvaro Morata in Atlético’s front row after the Spanish forward was loaned to Juventus for a season with an option to buy.
Suárez, who came to Barcelona from Liverpool in 2014, is leaving the club after winning the Champions League, four La Liga titles and four Copa del Rey trophies.
The Uruguayan was deemed in excess of the requirements by new coach Ronald Koeman, who is interested in switching to the old guard and rebuilding the team, and 33-year-old midfielder Arturo Vidal also completed a permanent transfer to Inter Milan.
Despite a turbulent season with injury-ridden Barca, Suárez scored 16 goals in 22 La Liga starts to finish as Spain’s fourth top-flight scorer. Atlético’s top scorer was Morata with 12.
Suárez becomes the third striker in recent years to switch between the two La Liga clubs after David Villa was sold to Atlético in 2013, while Antoine Griezmann moved to Barça last year.
While Villa became an instant hit, scoring 13 goals in Atlético’s 2013-14 league title winning campaign, Griezmann has yet to reach the same heights at Barca after his € 120 million move (140, 86 million dollars).
Atlético fought for much of last season without Griezmann and hopes that the capture of Suárez will significantly improve their chances of challenging Real Madrid and Barça for the title.
Suarez had also been linked to Serie A Juventus and took an Italian exam in an attempt to obtain an EU passport to be eligible to play as a European player, as the non-EU player slots in Turin were already filled.
However, Italian prosecutors said Tuesday they had evidence that Suarez’s language test to obtain Italian citizenship was rigged.
