Madrid: Luis Suarez is staying in Spain after all. However, not with Barcelona. The former La Liga champions Barcelona on late Wednesday announced that it reached a deal with Atletico Madrid for the transfer of the Uruguay striker for 6 million euros ($7 million).
Suarez was let go by Barcelona following six mostly successful seasons in which he won 13 titles with the Catalan club. He leaves as Barcelona's third-highest scorer ever with 198 goals, behind Csar Rodrguez (232) and Lionel Messi (634).
The 33-year-old Suarez had to find a new club after being told by incoming Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman that he was not in his plans. Koeman was asked to revamp the Barcelona squad after the embarrassing 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals of the Champions League in August.
Midfielder Ivan Rakitic already left for Sevilla after also being told he wasn't wanted anymore, and defender Samuel Umtiti is also expected to leave.
Messi, Surez's longtime friend and teammate, wanted to leave but will stay after the club denied his request for a free transfer at the end of last season.
Barcelona said it wanted to publicly express its "gratitude to Luis Suarez for his commitment and dedication," and wished him "all the best for the future."
The club said Suarez will give a news conference on Thursday. He reportedly bid farewell to his teammates earlier Wednesday.
Spanish media said Barcelona had initially made an agreement with Suarez to allow him to leave for free, but later backtracked after it became known that he wanted to go to rival Atletico. Suarez's lawyers had been negotiating with the Catalan club since Tuesday to try to make his move to Atletico possible.
Suarez, who arrived in Barcelona from Liverpool in 2014, will be joining Atletico's Argentine coach Diego Simeone, who has always praised Suarez and is also known to carry the same hard-working, never-give-up attitude as the Uruguayan striker.
Suarez had initially looked set to join Juventus in Italy and had even taken a test to receive a European passport that could help him complete the move. But the deal fell through because the passport process reportedly would take too long, and Juventus decided to go after Atletico's Alvaro Morata, opening space for Suarez in Simeone's squad.
Simeone still has Diego Costa and Joo Flix as its main attackers, but the duo only scored 14 goals combined for Atletico last season, seven fewer than Suarez scored for Barcelona.
The Catalan club had already added young Portugal forward Francisco Trinco this season. It still has Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele and youngster Ansu Fati, who on Wednesday was officially added to the first team and had his buyout clause increased from 170 million euros ($199 million) to 400 million euros ($469 million).
Martin Braithwaite also is an option for Koeman upfront, and the club reportedly was looking to eventually sign forwards Memphis Depay and Lautaro Martnez.
Atletico will make its Spanish league debut on Sunday against Granada at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium. Atletico's first two games were postponed because it played late into last season in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
