Denis Suárez: the umpteenth resurgence of the boy who was reflected in Andrés Iniesta

BarcelonaDenis Suárez will return to the pitch at the Spotify Camp Nou this Saturday (4:15 p.m.). He will be wearing the Alavés jersey in a stadium that only reopened its doors last week after more than two years of renovations. The Galician midfielder's return is seen as a reunion with the place where, almost a decade ago, he was presented as one of the club's great future prospects. Six years after his move to England and a journey marked by loans and changes of scenery, Denis Suárez returns to Barcelona a different player. He does so with experience and lessons learned, and possibly at one of the peak moments of his career.

To understand that period, we have to go back to 2016, when Barça was experiencing a time of immense pressure. Luis Enrique Martínez's team had just won the treble the year before, and the sporting management was looking for reinforcements that could revitalize the squad without losing its essence. Among them was Suárez, who was coming off two excellent seasons with Sevilla and Villarreal. They had to start working on finding a replacement for Andrés Iniesta, who was already 32, and the club included the player from Salceda de Caselas (Pontevedra) on the list of possibilities. Robert Fernández, then Barça's sporting director and the main person responsible for his signing, recalls to ARA the decision to sign Denis: "He was playing on loan at Villarreal, and we had to make a decision. He had a great season, and we saw that it would be good for us to have him with us." Barça exercised their buy-back option for 3.25 million euros, convinced that Denis had the qualities to contribute in the short term. However, in practice, he encountered an ecosystem of brutal demands: Iniesta, Ivan Rakitić, André Gomes, and Arda Turan were all fighting for the same spot. The competition was fierce. "He helped us at times, but without consistency, it's very difficult to perform at a high level," Fernández acknowledges.

In Ernesto Valverde's second year on the bench, the sporting management decided that Denis Suárez's time was up. The Galician needed playing time and stability, and Barça needed immediate results. With 8 goals and 76 appearances in the Blaugrana shirt, he left Barcelona to begin a period of loans, returns, and new opportunities. But his career was marked shortly afterward by an even more astonishing episode: his conflict with Celta Vigo, the club from his hometown, where he had developed and rediscovered his best form in 2019, more mature at 25.

The Celta case: sidelined because of a signing… from Real Madrid

In the summer of 2021, Bryan Bugarín, one of Celta Vigo's most promising young players, signed for Real Madrid. He was represented by the same agency as Denis Suárez, Intermedia Sport Player. Carlos Mouriño, Celta's president, publicly accused the agency of "trading children" and of playing a decisive role in the youngster's move to the Spanish capital. Denis denied this, stating that he didn't know the player's family and hadn't acted as an intermediary. However, despite being one of the team's key players, Celta began to sideline him. It didn't matter that the AFE (Spanish Footballers' Association) defended him against what they considered a violation of his rights. Thus, after eight months in the shadows, Denis left Galicia once again.

Now, after two less-than-successful spells at Espanyol (2023) and Villarreal (2023-2025), Suárez is smiling again on the pitch. A veteran (32 years old) with a youthful face, he reunited a few months ago with the coach who best understands his talent, Eduardo Coudet, with whom he played during his prime in Vigo. It is precisely this version of Denis that aspires to bring great moments of glory to Mendizorrotza, where he is currently displaying a level reminiscent of his first stint with the manager. The midfielder has steadily improved, earning a starting position in the last four matches and even scoring a goal. Perhaps, finally, the brilliance of his career has returned.