"I would never say no to the national team if they need me, especially with a World Cup coming up." That's Luis Suarez, 39 years old, playing in MLS, and apparently not finished with international football just yet.
The man who retired from Uruguay duty in September 2024 — as their all-time top scorer with 69 goals in 143 appearances — is leaving space for a comeback ahead of the 2026 tournament co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. Whether Marcelo Bielsa wants to reopen that conversation is a very different question.
The fallout that never fully settled
Suarez's exit wasn't clean. He went public with criticism of Bielsa's management, claiming the coach had divided the dressing room. It created noise, and not the flattering kind. He's since walked that back — "I said something I shouldn't have said. I have already apologised to those I needed to apologise to" — but these things don't disappear just because someone says sorry.
Bielsa has built Uruguay around a younger generation. That was always part of the plan. Suarez stepping aside was framed as a contribution to that project, not a falling out. The revised version, where he's available again at 39 with unresolved tension in the background, is a messier fit.
Still, Suarez at a World Cup is not a novelty act. He's appeared at four of them. He was part of the 2011 Copa America-winning squad. At Inter Miami, he insists the competitive fire is still there — "you can see it on the pitch when you still get angry about the losses and the bad passes." That's not nothing.
What it means in practice
Uruguay's World Cup qualifying picture and squad depth will determine whether this is a real conversation or a good quote. If Bielsa's attack runs into injury problems or form issues between now and June 11, 2026, Suarez's name will come up. Uruguay's odds to advance from any group stage get a different texture with him as a potential option off the bench versus without him entirely.
For now, the door is open. Whether anyone walks through it depends on Bielsa — and that relationship has some ground to recover first.
