He played as a midfielder for Deportivo de La Coruña, España Industrial, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Sampdoria; he also represented the Spain national team between 1957 and 1972.

[17] The two players were officially registered by the Catalan club at the end of 1953–54 league season, and as such deemed eligible to play in the Copa del Generalísimo of the same year.

[6][16][nb 2] He made his debut for Barça on 2 May 1954, the day of his 19th birthday,[19] in a 4–0 victory over his former team Deportivo in the cup's first round;[6] he then served as a regular starter for Ferdinand Daučík's side throughout the rest of the competition,[6] as they eventually lost to Valencia in the final.

[6][20] During the 1954–55 season, the midfielder gained limited playing time with the first team,[14] under manager Sandro Puppo,[6][21] while also featuring for Barcelona's reserve side, España Industrial, in the second division.

[6] Throughout the following campaigns, he steadily established himself as a regular starter,[6] although some of his coaches considered him "too frail" physically,[21] with manager Ferenc Plattkó notably forcing him to do extra work-out on a punching bag in order to raise his muscle mass.

[6][26] However, during his stint under the French manager, Suárez's relationship with Barcelona fans progressively deteriorated, due to a perceived rivalry between him and Kubala;[14][21] as a result, the midfielder started getting booed by his own supporters in every game he played.

[28] During his last season at Barcelona, which saw Enric Rabassa, Ljubisa Brocic and Enrique Orizaola take turns to sit in the dug-out, after Herrera had left for Inter Milan, Suárez did not win any trophy.

[19][25] On 26 May 1961, five days before the final of the European Cup,[32] Barcelona and Italian club Inter Milan reached an agreement for the transfer of Suárez for 25 million Spanish pesetas[21][26] (£152,000).

[34] The transfer, which saw Suárez re-unite with manager Herrera,[8][25] has been considered one of the most controversial decisions in Barcelona's history,[9][21] as the Catalan club's board reportedly aimed to maximize the revenue in order to repay part of their financial debts,[21][26] as well as complete the construction of the Camp Nou.

[36] In October of the same year, he suffered a knee injury in a Fairs Cup match against Köln, which limited his impact on the pitch during the rest of his first season in Italy.

[38][39] At the start of the following campaign,[8] manager Herrera moved Suárez to the deep-lying playmaker role,[6][8] where he became one of the key players of the Grande Inter side that famously adopted a counter-attacking style of play.

[6][43] In the second leg of the cup's semi-finals against Borussia Dortmund, the midfielder caused controversy after violently kicking the opposing right-half and injuring him, with referee Branko Tesanić eventually opting against sending the Spanish player off.

[45][46] In December of the same year, he finished second in the final standings for the 1964 Ballon d'Or, behind winner Denis Law:[12][47] the Spanish player publicly expressed his disappointment over this outcome in multiple occasions during his lifetime.

[39][54] Throughout the 1965–66 league campaign, Suárez scored five goals,[55] helping Inter lift their second consecutive national title;[23][55] his team also reached the semi-finals of the European Cup, before losing to eventual champions Real Madrid.

[56] In May 1967, Suárez was forced to miss the European Cup final against Celtic due to an injury, being subsequently replaced by Mauro Bicicli:[57] Inter eventually suffered a 2–1 defeat.

[58][59] In the following weeks, the Italian club also missed out on their third national title in a row on the last day (in favor of Juventus),[60][61] and got eliminated by Padova in the Coppa Italia semi-finals: as a result, they finished the campaign without winning a single trophy.

[62] During the 1969–70 campaign, his last season at Inter Milan, Suárez's performances declined due to his deployment as a sweeper:[23] he scored just one goal in the league, as his side finished runners-up behind Cagliari.