Luis Suárez’s former agent, Daniel Fonseca, has launched a scathing attack on the Barcelona forward after Suárez claimed during an interview that Fonseca owed him money from his transfer to Groningen from Nacional in 2006.

Suárez, speaking to Montecarlo TV on Wednesday night, claimed that Fonseca owed him 20 percent of the deal that took him to the Eredivisie. Groningen paid Nacional around 800,000 euros for Suárez.

The Uruguay international went on to say that Fonseca had told him he had to reject the 20 percent and would be compensated later when another transfer took place, something that Suárez said had never happened.

Suárez also claimed he was duped as to his wages at Groningen. “Knowing the difficulties a player has to go through to earn his money, taking me to a team and telling me I’d be getting 30,000 euros and then finding it’s 10,000… that was one of the very few disappointing things between me and Daniel at that time and it still annoys me because as a former player, to do that with players who have come up from nothing, who have suffered, they play their part as well.”

Fonseca, who played for Juventus, Roma, Napoli and River Plate, starting out at Nacional like Suárez, responded on Uruguay radio station 1010. “He is lying, he is a kid with mental issues, everybody knows that. He still sees a psychologist but I don’t think it’s doing any good. He needs to change psychologist or go to a psychiatrist. He counts on his fingers, the kid doesn’t know how to add up.”

Before Suárez’s interview turned to financial matters, the forward said he was very grateful to Fonseca for his help during the early years of his career. “When I was 15 he paid for my first trip to Spain [to visit his girlfriend]. He used to help out with a bit of money, giving my family a bit every month. I’m very grateful because of the needs we had as a family. Sometimes he’d give me football boots, he treated us very well,” he said.

However, the talk of money owed did not sit well with Fonseca, who responded angrily to the claim.

“The whole thing started because I had to tell the kid a very uncomfortable truth when he was playing for the junior national team. Three of his teammates gave me a call and said they were having a tough time with Luis. I had to say something very uncomfortable to the kid, but until the day I die I won’t say what it was. He didn’t take it, it didn’t go down well at all. The coward should tell the truth and not try to smear me by saying I owe him 200,000 euros. Little sod! If he had any courage he’d say what I had to say to him. That’s the real motive why this disgraceful person doesn’t have the courage to talk and has been hiding this for six years,” Fonseca said.