Luis Suárez recently shared a heartwarming moment with Kobi Johnson, the son of his former Liverpool teammate Glen Johnson, at Inter Miami's training complex in Fort Lauderdale. Suárez was at the facility for the Messi Cup, a youth tournament hosted by Inter Miami.
Suárez spotted Kobi, who plays for the Chelsea Under-14 team, and approached the young player. "I used to play with your dad, I've known you since you were little," Suárez told Kobi. The Uruguayan striker then posed for a photograph with the Chelsea academy starlet. Kobi Johnson remarked that Suárez recalled him being "quite chubby" when he was younger.
Kobi Johnson has been part of Chelsea's academy system since the under-eights and is considered a promising talent. His father, Glen Johnson, had a notable career, playing over 350 Premier League games for clubs including Chelsea, Liverpool, Portsmouth, and Stoke City, and winning the league title with Chelsea in the 2005-06 season.
Suárez and Glen Johnson were teammates at Liverpool for four seasons between 2011 and 2015. During that period, the team narrowly missed out on the Premier League title in 2014. Glen Johnson retired from professional football in 2018, while Suárez continues to play for Inter Miami alongside other former Barcelona stars.
During their time at Liverpool, Suárez received an eight-match ban for racially abusing former Manchester United player Patrice Evra in 2011. Glen Johnson publicly defended Suárez at the time, a stance he maintained in a 2019 interview, suggesting that while the timing of apologies might have been off, the club and players did not believe Suárez was racist.