As their paths crossed in the Anfield players' car park, Fernando Torres would have been forgiven if he'd gone a little green in the face. For here was his heir apparent bouncing in the door, brimming with confidence; whilst he was to trundle down the M6, a shadow of his former self.

Luis Suarez had big boots to fill. Torres had built a reputation as one of the finest strikers to have worn the Liverpool red: the complete forward. But in recent years, injuries niggled. El Nino looked sullen and detached and for the first time, his attitude was questioned by the Kop.

Fast forward six months and most of the Liverpool fans agree that Henry, Dalglish et al operated shrewdly. Suarez has delighted Kopites with a series of dazzling performance, a tenacity and commitment their forward line had been sorely lacking and a huge injection of South American flair. Whilst he's got a long way to go before he shakes the Kop, the early signs are good.

Before joining Liverpool in the January transfer window of 2011, Suarez's signature was much sought after across the continent. He made his name in the Eredivise in Holland, first with Groningen and then Ajax.

At the Amsterdam Arena, he blossomed into one of the most prolific strikers in Europe. In his third season with the club, he notched an incredible 45 goals in 44 games. He joined the illustrious company of Bergkamp, Cruyff and Van Basten in being scoring over 100 goals for the club and continued in exhilarating fashion for his national side. 

But ironically for someone with such a keen eye for goal, Suarez is not an out an out striker. During the 2010 World Cup, Suarez starred for an impressive Uruguay side that surprised many by making it to the semi final, but he did so as a cog in a triumvirate with Edinson Cavani and Diego Forlan. Cavani led the line, with Suarez and Forlan dropping back to support the midfield, creating as many as they scored.

Indeed, Suarez embodied the combination of hard work, quick thinking and élan that Oscar Tabarez instilled in the side. With Uruguay stuttering in this year's Copa America, it was Suarez who stepped up to the plate, firing them through first the Group Stage and then the semi final. Having been cast as the pantomime villian following his goal-line handball in last year's World Cup Semi Final, Suarez is now being heralded for the guts and winning attitude that drove him to bend the rules.

Liverpool fans will have been watching his performances at the Copa America with great interest. In his short spell with the club, Luis Suarez has been hugely impressive, but his partnership with Andy Carroll has yet to ignite.

Carroll has spent the majority of his Liverpool career on the sidelines, injured. The pair are seen as the figureheads of the Dalglish revolution: young, dynamic, exciting. With the squad undergoing a substantial makeover in the summer, fans will be looking to the pair to quickly repay their large transfer fees.

It's an exciting time to be a Liverpool fan and nobody personifies the buzz about Anfield better than Luis Suarez.

For a country that only played its first World Cup qualifier in 2000 and is perhaps best known in these parts as the home of Timbuktu, the list of footballers from Mali (or of Malian descent) is long and surprisingly impressive.

The current squad is bolstered by the presence of Momo Sissoko (Juventus), Seydou Keita (Barcelona) and Mahamadou Diarra (Real Madrid). French football legend and former Fulham manager Jean Tigana was born in the capital city, Bamako and Salif Keita, formerly of Valencia, Marseille and Saint Etienne, is considered to be one of the greatest African players of all time.

But their most celebrated son of the modern era was born to Malian parents in Lyon, in the south of France. Despite representing France at youth levels, though, there can be no doubting which nation Frédéric Kanouté considers home. He opted to turn out for Mali rather than France in 2004, going on to top score in that year's African Cup of Nations.

His goalscoring record for the national side was better than one in two (meeting the Football Ramble's golden ratio for a top striker), but it's Kanouté's club career in England and Spain for which he'll be best remembered.

His spell with hometown club Lyon was relatively forgettable, but earned him an initial loan spell in London with West Ham which then manager Harry Redknapp quickly made permanent.

As they watched Carlton Cole and Franck Nouble lumbering about up top last season, Hammers fans must've been yearning for the days when Kanouté partnered Paolo Di Canio at the Boleyn Ground. But nostalgia can be misleading. Despite Kanouté consistently finding the back of the net, he was unable to stop his side slipping out of the top flight.

Frédi jumped ship for Tottenham, where he joined fellow recruits Helder Postiga, Robbie Keane and Bobby Zamora as part of a new look strikeforce at White Hart Lane. Only he and Keane could be considered successes, though. His return for Spurs was solid, but his lackadaisical stylings were often construed as laziness.

His decision to attend the African Nations Cup in 2004, earned the ire of the Spurs faithful, too, who berated him with the chant "you're French, and you know you are." It was the beginning of the end for Kanouté in England. His form dipped and just as his career looked to be on the slide, his finest performances were yet to come.

A move to Spain rejuvenated Kanouté. With Sevilla, he has hit double figures in all but his début season at the club (2005-06) and established himself as one of the most consistent strikers in La Liga. 

He was a member of Juande Ramos' double UEFA Cup winning squad and has hit well over a century of goals for the Andalusians. As he reaches the twilight of his career, a move to the Middle East has been mooted (which would certainly make sense on a personal level), but Sevilla have publicly stated their desire to keep hold of their man.

Kanouté is a devout Muslim. He hit the headlines when he refused to don the Sevilla shirt because of their sponsorship deal with a betting firm. He regularly takes time out of training to pray and donated £700,000 of his own money to buy a mosque in Sevilla.

As a representative of the Islamic community, an ambassador for African football and a striker who has scored goals at the top level in three countries for almost 15 years, Frédéric Kanouté is Icons' first forward for Friday.

We're delighted to add Kanouté products to our collection for the first time this week, you can view them here.