FORMER Arsenal midfielder Denis Suarez has become the latest La Liga player to be targeted by burglars.
The 25-year-old, who flopped on loan with the Gunners last season, was out partying with model girlfriend Nadia Aviles to celebrate the new year.
And while the loved-up couple were enjoying themselves, intruders are said to have broken into Suarez’s Barcelona property.
Local media reported the thieves ransacked the property and destroyed the safe – before deciding that nothing was worth stealing.
Suarez and Aviles have been dating for a year-and-a-half now – with the stunning Catalan model having been a regular at the Camp Nou – even when her man couldn’t get into the team.
And she joined him in London during his unsuccessful Arsenal stint, even labelling it her “second favourite city”.
Second presumably to Barcelona, although the ransacking thieves may have spoilt her home city somewhat.
Despite having left the Catalan giants for Celta Vigo last summer, Suarez kept his property in the city, and was celebrating the new year when the burglars struck.
And while nothing appeared to go missing, the experience will have been a jolting one.
Aviles had welcomed in the new year by posting a picture of herself kissing Suarez alongside a message saying: “I promise to carry on looking after you and us always”.
Suarez is not the first prominent La Liga player to be targeted.
His former team-mate Nelson Semedo’s Barcelona home was targeted last month ahead of the Clasico between his side and Real Madrid at the Camp Nou.
They took valuables including watches and jewellery as the 26-year-old Lisbon-born right-back was with his team at their hotel in the city centre preparing for the crunch match which ended in a draw.
In October several members of an Albanian-led gang suspected of targeting at least three top footballers’ homes in and around Madrid, were arrested.
One of the footballers targeted by the gang was identified as on-loan Chelsea forward Alvaro Morata, whose wife Alice Campello was confronted by armed intruders in June while she was alone at their home north of Madrid with a nanny and one-year-old twins Alessandro and Leonardo.
A Champions League medal and passport belonging to Atletico de Madrid’s Ghana-born star Thomas Partey was also said to have been recovered along with valuables during the suspects’ arrests.
In November former West Ham striker Javier Hernandez’s new Spanish home was targeted by a burglar just two months after he signed for Sevilla.
A housekeeper prevented the intruder from getting in after calling police when she saw him trying to break into the property.
He fled before detectives reached the house, next to the Real Club de Sevilla Golf Course which was designed by Jose Maria Olazabal and lies between Seville and the nearby town of Alcala de Guadaira.
The attempted break-in happened at the start of the Sevilla-Betis derby.
Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane and Barcelona star Gerard Pique have also had their homes targeted by burglars while they were away on footballing duties.
Suarez’s Celta de Vigo teammate Iago Aspas fell victim to burglars twice last year.
