Latest interview:
After such a frenetic comeback, can it be difficult to get to sleep?
Yeah, well, it depends. There are times when it's easier to sleep and others time less so. The adrenaline is there and you can toss and turn but this time I slept quite easily.
Are you someone who re-watches the game, his goals - do you have a routine?
It depends on the match I've had! Because there are times when you don't want to watch any of it back. Yesterday, for example, only my wife was awake and we spoke a little bit about the match. We do that sometimes. When I wake up I watch some TV, usually the news, and I focus on that and not about sport. I'm always thinking about getting up early so I can take the kids to school!
Is it difficult being Luis Suárez?
No. You try to be as normal as possible, being just another human in the world. I'm a father, a husband and I play football for a living. But I try to show people that I don't live in a different world. A lot of people think we don't have any idea of what's happening because we live in our own world. But I'm just a father who loves to spend time with his wife and children.
I heard you once say there are two versions of Luis Suarez: the footballer, who always appears angry, and the normal version: do those two versions of you still exist or have you changed?
[Laughing]. I'm still the same, ambitious footballer. I still play with that desire that I've been born with. That desire to win and the way I play is never going to change. But I've learnt a lot, more since I've lived in Barcelona. I'm trying to enjoy football a little bit more."I'm used to playing with discomfort but I've had a pain-free month""
Did you play too angrily?
Playing with intensity and aggression doesn't mean you are going around hitting and kicking people all the time. But those battles and arguments are who I am. Now I laugh and enjoy more with my teammates. That's changed, but the way I play won't ever be different. When I say that I'm different off the pitch it's because, if I'm angry off it, it has to be for a very big reason. On the pitch I get angry for the smallest things!
Puyol always said that after getting to know Pique it changed his perspetive on football and that he needed to enjoy life more. What influence has Leo had on you?
I think it's helped me to see how relaxed he is in matches. Sometimes I thought that you need to be focused the day before, or a few hours before the match. That's what happened with me at Liverpool, with the national team and all of my previous clubs. And I think to see the atmosphere here, to see everyone focused, knowing what they have to do, but in a more relaxed environment has helped me.
What about Neymar; more than in a footballing sense, what is the thing you miss most about him?
Obviously he was a player that, inside the dressing room, transmitted so much happiness. He was a teammate who always had a smile on his face. Like Brazilians in general. Of course i miss that but we made the change at that moment, that he wasn't going to be here, and we needed to fill that gap which he left.
Could you imagine him returning one day?
In football, I always say that you never know what could happen. Right now he's enjoying life in Paris a lot. His objectives are clear. But obviously, as a teammate, friend or a fan of football you want the best at your side. But this is hypothetical and you never know.
But it's something which excites you…
Of coruse but he's a player that makes a difference. But you also need to remember that it was a complicated decision he made when he decided to leave. Just as it would be if he decided to return.
For a lot of people Messi, the person, is a great mystery. But you've had the privlige of spending long trips with him: what do you talk about in Leo's car?
We don't only talk about football. We talk about the past, the future. We're humans that, aside from being teammates, we're good friends who have a lot in common. Not only that but sometimes our wives are doing things we're left alone. In my house or his drinking mate. We can be sat talking for two or three hours. But I always say this: a lot of people see him as Messi but for me, he's simply Leo.
Do you watch matches together?
No, but we talk about a lot of situations in matches. The good as much as the bad because we're both self-criticial. There are days when the team wins and I feel frustrated because I didn't perform well. And Leo knows I'm in an argumentative mood. The same way I know when he's angry because he didn't have a good performance.
There's an urban legend going around about the moment in which you started to play as a '9' for Barça. Is true that Leo told you to do this?
[Smiling]. The system we had with Luis Enrique was for Leo to play as a false nine, getting rid of the traditional number ten. Neymar would go to one side and I would go to the other. But I was always tasked with coming inside and occupying that space between the centre back and the full back. It was after a match against Ajax. They sat really deep and of course, with Leo in that position, he wasn't finding much space and they put me in there. We made two really good plays and when I was about to go back out wide, Leo said: "If you want, you can stay here." As if he was asking me. I stayed in that position and it was later Luis Enrique who decided, after speaking to all three of us, to stick with it. "Would you like to keep playing that way?" With me as the '9'. We all said yes. And that's how it stayed.
Was there a lot of joking about this with Luis Enrique over the story?
No. I remember the moment in which Leo said that to me but it was a decision made with Luis Enrique.
