It would have been a close call, but at the beginning of the season Luis Suarez may just have pipped John Terry as the least popular player in English football (the other contender, Joey Barton, had been loaned from Queens Park Rangers to Olympique Marseille so he was no longer eligible).
The Liverpool striker and Chelsea captain had both been embroiled in racism rows last season when Suarez was found guilty by the Football Association of racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra in October 2011. He was given an eight-game suspension and a ￡40,000 fine. When the teams next met last February, Suarez avoided shaking Evra's hand, for which Suarez was later forced to apologize. Suarez's CV also included accusations of diving and outside of Liverpool and Uruguay was loathed.
Five months later Suarez is being talked about as a candidate for the Footballer of the Year award, which would put him alongside the all-time greats who have graced English football, including Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton, Gary Lineker, Thierry Henry and Cristiano Ronaldo.