Luis Suárez is soccer’s redemption story this holiday season.

He is the Uruguayan who began the season barred for biting an opposing player, and was then made to train in isolation after trying to force Liverpool to sell him.

But scoring goals changes perceptions.

On Sunday, Suárez led Liverpool as its captain in the absence of its regular leader, Steven Gerrard. He scored twice. He helped set up three more goals. He was the catalyst for such a humiliating 5-0 home defeat for Tottenham Hotspur that it fired its coach, André Villas-Boas, less than 24 hours later.

Suárez was back in London the next night. The player who divided fan opinion just five months ago was in a tuxedo, honored by the Football Supporters’ Federation — which represents 500,000 soccer fans throughout England and Wales — as its top player of 2013.

Whoever writes his script is a fantasist.

The award ceremony took place at Emirates Stadium, the home of Tottenham’s closest rival, Arsenal. It had been Arsenal that bid a pound more than the 40 million pounds, or $65 million, required in his contract to try to get him to leave Liverpool in August.