Francisco "Francis" Manuel Suárez Arteaga (born 6 January 1987) is a Spanish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Club career

Born in

Las Palmas Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital city of the Canary Islands (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and the m ...

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

, Suárez came through local

' youth system, making his senior debut with neighbouring Castillo whilst on loan. Upon his return, he then spent one full season with the B team, in the

Tercera División Tercera División () was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Until 1977, it was the third tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segund ...

. On 7 January 2007, he made his first official appearance for the main squad, coming on as a 70th-minute substitute in a 2–2

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

away draw against

Salamanca Salamanca () is a Municipality of Spain, municipality and city in Spain, capital of the Province of Salamanca, province of the same name, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is located in the Campo Charro comarca, in the ...

. In the following seven campaigns, with the club always in the second tier, Suárez acted almost exclusively as a backup, his best output consisting of 20 games in 2007–08. He scored the first of only three competitive goals during his tenure on 14 November 2007, in a 2–4 home loss to

Villarreal Villarreal (officially, in ) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital ( ...

in the

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

. Suárez was loaned to Ponferradina of the same league for

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, appearing in only one sixth of the matches and also suffering team relegation. In the 2013–14 season, he was not even given a jersey number and, in June 2014, left to sign with

Inter Turku Football Club International Turku, commonly referred to as Inter Turku () and colloquially known as Inter, is a Finnish professional football club based in Turku that competes in the Veikkausliiga, the top flight of Finnish Football. Founded i ...

in the Finnish

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga () is a professional association football league in Finland and the highest level of the Finnish football league system. The league comprises the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agenc ...

. Suárez scored in his first-ever game in top flight football, helping Inter to a 2–1 home win over

Turun Palloseura Turun Palloseura, commonly known as TPS, is a professional association football, football club based in Turku, Finland. Since 2024, the men's team competes in Ykkösliiga, the second highest tier. Nicknamed "''Tepsi''", the club was founded i ...

on 8 June 2014.

Personal life

Suárez's

twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two ...

brother, Sergio, was also a footballer and a midfielder, and both played mostly for Las Palmas during their careers.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Suarez, Francis 1987 births Living people Spanish twins 21st-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Las Palmas Men's association football midfielders Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players UD Las Palmas Atlético players UD Las Palmas players SD Ponferradina players CD Izarra footballers Veikkausliiga players FC Inter Turku players

Francis Suarez Francis Xavier Suarez ( ; born October 6, 1977) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the 43rd List of mayors of Miami, mayor of Miami since 2017. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he previousl ...

Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Finland Expatriate men's footballers in Thailand Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Finland Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Thailand