Luis Suarez bids emotional farewell to Barcelona

After six years, Luis Suarez is leaving Barcelona to join Atlético Madrid after being told by his longtime club to play elsewhere, as he was no longer needed on the team. The forward was openly emotional in his goodbye to the team, expressing his gratitude despite the less than ideal circumstances of his departure.

"When the club says it doesn’t need you anymore, you have to accept it," he said during a press conference organized by Barcelona. "But it takes a while, it’s difficult. Your family is involved, you’ve gone through a lot with the club. So it’s difficult to accept that you are leaving, but you have to. It’s the reality, it’s how things are in soccer."

Last month, new coach Ronald Koeman informed the 33-year-old that he was not a part of the team's plans moving forward, forcing Suarez to find a new club for the first time in years. He was able to sign a deal with Atlético that could earn him up to six million euros (which roughly translates to $7 million).

While Suarez was open about his sadness, he did not take any parting shots at Koeman or the club in general, instead thanking the team for taking a chance on him following his disastrous showing at the 2014 World Cup, where he bit an Italian defender.

"I’ll always be thankful for that," he said. "It wasn’t easy to accept that, but the club believed in me. From the time I arrived, my colleagues and everyone in the club treated me wonderfully."