Luis Suarez or Edinson Cavani: Who Is the Better Signing?

If this summer transfer window has taught us anything, it's that Uruguayan strikers don't come cheap.

Last week, Edinson Cavani joined Paris Saint-Germain for a record €64 million, the fifth highest transfer fee ever paid in football.

According to PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi, the 26-year-old forward was "seduced by our project," making it sound as if he was lured from Napoli by an irresistible sporting force (quote via The Guardian), rather than a fee that apparently makes him seven times more valuable than new Juventus purchase Carlos Tevez.

Cavani's countryman Luis Suarez, meanwhile, is also the subject of high-profile transfer talk. Despite the fact he will miss the first six games of next season for his infamous biting incident—well, his second infamous biting incident—the Liverpool striker has been notified of a £40,000,001 bid from Arsenal. 

The Gunners, however, have had their offer rejected, with the Anfield side insisting they will accept bids of no less than £50 million for their prized asset (presumably a £50,000,001 bid is being prepared in North London). This new asking price puts him in roughly the same range as Cavani.

This flurry of Uruguayan transfer activity has led to an interesting debate among football fans: If you had €64m to spend, would you rather bring Luis Suarez or Edinson Cavani to your team?

On the face of it, many would be inclined to pick Suarez. He has shown world-class skill since he burst into the public conscious in 2009-10, when he scored 49 goals in 48 appearances for Ajax, before becoming the hero/villain of the World Cup with his goal-line handball clearance. 

Since then, Suarez has enjoyed a much higher profile than Cavani, thanks to a move to Liverpool where he has scored 38 league goals in two-and-a-half seasons. He is fast, deadly from long range and one of the most tenacious players in the game. 

On the national team, when the pair are playing together for a true and fair comparison, Suarez has outshone his long-haired counterpart. The Liverpool player has scored 34 international goals since 2011-12, while Cavani has managed just 10 in the same time period. Suarez has a total of 35 goals for his country in 69 appearances, while Cavani has managed just 20, albeit in 10 fewer games.

Furthermore, a side-by-side comparison from transfermarkt.co.uk shows how much longer Suarez's list of achievements is. With accolades including Dutch Footballer of the Year, Copa America Player of the Tournament and numerous Golden Boots, Suarez's mantle bears a much heavier load. 

With all this in mind, it is little wonder that Liverpool are commanding the same kind of money that PSG paid for his Uruguayan teammate. 

Given the choice between the two players, however, this writer would much sooner spend his kitty on Cavani.

His global profile may be lower since he has been playing in Serie A, but it can hardly escape your attention that his form has been devastating in the past few seasons. 

In 2012-13, he was Serie A's top scorer with 29 goals. More impressively, he has scored 78 league goals in the past three seasons with the Neapolitans. In that same time period, Suarez has managed just 45 domestic goals (38 in the Premier League, seven in the Eredivisie). Cavani has also shown his class in Europe, netting 19 times in 25 appearances over those three seasons.

In fact, over the past two years, only Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi have scored more times than Edinson Cavani.  

Perhaps most importantly, Cavani is less of a liability than his hotheaded teammate. With his biting incidents, alleged racism, open admissions of diving and other deplorable antics, Suarez has undoubtedly had a damaging effect on Liverpool's brand. 

The 26-year-old's antics have led to three separate bans totalling 19 games at Liverpool, while he was banned for seven matches at Ajax for biting. When a club is paying so much for a player, it is very difficult to see him sidelined so frequently for his own disappointing behaviour. 

Overall, relatively little separates the talents of these two players. They are the same age, they are both physical and fast and there is little to discern between their non-goal related stats: according to whoscored.com, for example, Cavani's pass success percentage last season was 77.9 percent, while Suarez's was 76.6 percent. 

Yet Cavani has shown that he is a more prolific scorer and a more reliable player at the club level.

After all, PSG could have used their money to buy either Suarez or Cavani, and their decision surely reflects who the more desirable player is.