The bite felt 'round the world got Uruguayan soccer star Luis Suarez ejected from the World Cup — but he may now be on the way to realizing a professional dream via transfer to the iconic Spanish club FC Barcelona.  The Guardian reported the deal that Suarez's current club, Liverpool, is nearing with Barcelona will be worth £70 million (about $120 million). The Independent pegged it at £80 million (about $137 million). Either way, the sum is what we call a truckload of money.  Unlike in American sports, soccer clubs do not swap players; instead they simply buy them from other teams and then sign them to contracts of their own. So the figures being reported by British media would be what Barcelona pays Liverpool for Suarez. He would then sign a contract for Barcelona, presumably for another truckload of money. (The latest deal Suarez signed with Liverpool just last December paid him £200,000 per week.)  Suarez's reported transfer fee would be among the highest in soccer history, but he's currently one of the world's best players — when not suspended for biting or racially abusing opponents, that is.  Even before his infamous World Cup bite, Saurez was one of world soccer's most controversial figures. He had already bitten opponents twice before in club matches, once while playing for Dutch club Ajax in 2010 and then again while playing for Liverpool in April 2013. In 2011, an opponent accused him of racial abuse on the pitch, for which Suarez was banned eight games and fined £40,000. At the 2010 World Cup, he intentionally committed a savvy — but highly controversial — handball to stop a goal in a match against Ghana.  Suarez was banned from all football-related activities for four months by FIFA following his World Cup chomp-down in June, but that's little factor when it comes to his reported transfer. The Spanish soccer season doesn't start until mid-August and runs through May, meaning Suarez would only miss about two months. If he stays at Barcelona for a few years, those two months would be but a drop in the bucket.  Suarez is also coming off knee surgery, so those two months could be seen as an added rest-time bonus. Not that he appears to need it, however, scoring two goals in two World Cup matches in Brazil before being banned.  It's tempting to assume Liverpool wants to sell Suarez now because of shame and disgrace brought on by his latest biting incident — but that's simply an assumption. Tensions have long run high between Suarez and Liverpool. In August 2013, for example, he publicly pleaded for Liverpool to allow him a transfer to another English Premier League side, Arsenal, after Liverpool failed to qualify for Europe's Champions League.  While not a devastatingly long suspension, missing Suarez for two months of the season would also hurt Liverpool much more than it would Barcelona. Liverpool does not have the ridiculous stable of strikers Barcelona does; Messi and Neymar could carry the load for Barcelona just fine without Suarez and his eventual return would simply constitute an embarrassment of goal-scoring riches. Then factor in one more risk: should Suarez bite again — a distinct possibility, given his cannibalistic history — he would likely receive a maximum ban of two years from FIFA.  Liverpool's apparent willingness to sell Suarez is likely more a business decision than a moral repudiation. As for Suarez, he's reportedly hankered to join a Spanish club for some time and the fact that his wife's family lives in Barcelona makes it an appealing destination. The Catalan club is currently enduring something of a rebuilding process, but remains arguably the world's most iconic soccer club.  Nothing is certain until papers are signed, but reports indicated the Suarez-to-Barcelona deal is all but a sure thing. Just how much his fee is remains to be seen, and how his latest biting incident influenced Liverpool's decision-making will never be known for sure.  But amid the Suarez uncertainty, one thing remains unquestionable: When it comes to the big-business world of major professional sports, talent and money rule all.  Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Luis Suarez, serial biter, could be on the the verge of securing what most soccer players would call a dream job.