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Uruguay's Luis Suarez reacts at the end of the Qatar 2022 World Cup Group H football match between Ghana and Uruguay at the Al-Janoub Stadium in Al-Wakrah, south of Doha on Dec. 2, 2022.PHILIP FONG/AFP/Getty Images

There was something almost sweet about watching Luis Suarez weep on the bench during Uruguay’s game on Friday.

Uruguay won, but lost. After a late South Korean goal in a game against Portugal being played simultaneously, Uruguay – despite beating Ghana – was knocked out of the World Cup.

For the last few minutes, Suarez – the greatest cartoon villain in World Cup history – began to shed a tear. He’d spent 60 minutes causing havoc on the field, and subsequently been subbed off. He is old now. So crying was his contribution to the team’s late push.

He cried forever. He cried during the game with his jersey pulled up over his face. He cried after the game with a T-shirt pulled over his head like a hood. He went out on the field for a while, walking and crying while teammates consoled him. Nothing would stop him. This man is remarkably hydrated.

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He’s also a ridiculously unlikeable player. Possibly a great friend, husband and father. Lionel Messi seems to love him. But Suarez can be truly despicable when he’s at work.

He’s the guy who cheated Ghana out of its World Cup shot in 2010 – punching a ball off the goal line – and then rode off on the shoulders of his teammates. He’s the guy who bit an Italian in 2014, then tried to claim he was the injured party because his teeth hurt.

Suarez was once one of the greats. But in the end, his temper defined him.

He’s 35 now – ancient for a forward. He can no longer skin opponents with pure speed. So he beats them with malice. When he puts on the baby blue of Uruguay, he is an unstoppable force for bad.

On Friday, he was up to all his tricks – diving, whining, berating, pushing, shoving. At one point, he was very gently nicked by an opponent, went down as if he’d been hit with an aluminum bat, lay there moaning, waited until the referee stood over him – head still down, clearly dying – until the referee made it clear no card would be given. That’s when Suarez popped up like a gymnast – I don’t think I saw his hands touch the ground – so that he could scream bloody murder directly in the ref’s face.

A real renaissance villain, this one. Does it all.

The Uruguayan team has a reputation for approaching the game two-fistedly (as well as two-footedly and many-tonguedly). At their worst, the Uruguayans remind you of the Internet – constant complaining, bad-faith arguments, “literally crying” because things haven’t gone their way. Whenever they get upset, a mob forms and they chase you around at work and try to get you fired.

After Friday’s game ended, a group of Uruguayan players pursued the German referee off the pitch. It seemed highly likely one of them would pop him. What were they arguing about? Who knows? Everything, probably.

They seemed to think a late fall by Edinson Cavani should have been a penalty for Uruguay. What it should have been was a yellow card for diving, but try telling them that.

The Uruguayan players would have chased the ref down the tunnel, but a bunch of FIFA officials got in their way – and the players probably worried about losing their wallets. Watching this shambles made you wish Qatari autocracy was less “soft power” and had more of a “shields and batons” feel.

A Guardian headline nicely captured the scene: “Uruguay Leave the World Cup the Same Way They Played In It: Gracelessly.”

But poor Suarez. So sad. So gutted to fall short on behalf of his country. You were beginning to think: “Maybe he’s not really the worst. Every man has a heart. How else would he be able to sob so hard?”

Then someone put a microphone in front of him.

Suarez began speaking in Spanish about his “sadness and disappointment.” Very human. Very relatable.

Then he began to backslide into complaining. Some “incredible things” are being called in this World Cup, Suarez said, but none for Uruguay.

“After the match, I wanted to give a hug to my children and my wife, and people from FIFA came to tell me my children couldn’t come down [to the pitch], even though the other day there was a player from France with his children on the substitutes’ bench,” he said, shrugging sadly. “You wonder why always against Uruguay.”

That was close. He almost got us. But in the end, Suarez couldn’t keep it up. It had to become a dreary whinge about how the whole world is against him. If this is the best he’s got – that his relatives can’t gambol on the field with impunity – he needs better material.

That was probably it for Suarez as a World Cup participant. He’s just barely hanging on as a top-level pro. Three-and-a-half years is a long time.

If that’s the case, I’ll miss him. He is all id. That’s not rare. It’s unique. Even the biggest jerk cares a little bit about what people think of them. But not Suarez. He will do whatever it takes, use whatever dark arts he must, in order to win. And if some people take offence, then clearly they want him dead and probably belong in jail for harassment.

There is something pure about that malevolent drive. It is more recognizably human than putting on a great, showy, sobbing spectacle. If nothing else, Suarez was always true to himself, whether the rest of us liked it or not.

But however unlikely, I find it difficult to believe he won’t be back once more. Age cannot stop this depth of animus. Expect to see him chugging around the fields of North America in 2026.

The opposing net may not have much to fear from him by that point, but no official anywhere will be safe.

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