Luis Filipe Madeira Caeiro was born in 1972 in the town of Almada. Mrs. Figo had just given birth, in Portugal, to the biggest star that the country would come to see since the tremendous and legendary wizard Eusebio. Luis Figo was immediately on his way to many great things. "Luis is technically perfect, quick off the mark and a great dribbler. He's a striker who pulls the crowds into the stadium," states former Real Madrid coach Jupp Heynckes. Real Madrid's technical director, Jorge Valdano, is equally taken with the player in the Number 10 strip: "We are so used to Figo playing brilliantly that we think he's playing badly when he just plays normally."
Praise indeed, for a man who is now being expelled from the Real Madrid team, yet still clutching 90k a week in his hands from the club’s seemingly bottomless wage bank. The man is undoubtedly a genius who describes himself as ‘incomplete’ without a football at his feet; and whilst his wife may not quite approve of such words, football fans everywhere may relate to the man who is so constantly ravaged in the press for being lazy and greedy. I don’t know any lazy men, personally, who win the World Footballer of the Year, Portuguese Player of the Year five times, Spanish Primera three times, a European Cup, a European Super Cup, and five other domestic trophies collectively. Nope… I can’t think of a way in which a lazy man can be instrumental in the teams which have won each of those trophies. It defies possibility.
Then where does this problem emerge from? In which murky waters do these suggestions of lethargy and indolence lurk. Going back to the beginning of Figo’s career shows very little in the way of sluggishness. In 1989, the scheming, sprightly Figo was in the Portuguese team which finished third in the FIFA U16 World Championships in Scotland. Two years later, he won the FIFA World Junior Championships in his homeland with the Portuguese Under-20 team. Even then, as later he would in the full national squad, Figo fashioned the very base of the team along with other youngsters such as AC Milan’s Rui Costa.
The man had made a superb start to his career, there’s no denying that. Most agreed that he was actually destined to go on to much better pastures, including his former coach and avid fan Carlos Queiroz, who later coached the Portuguese national team, stating that, "Even then, Luis was ahead of all the rest." He was winning admirers all the time, and stepped into the Portuguese Championship with much aplomb and ease, before signing for Barcelona in 1995 for a relatively tiny fee of 4.2 million pounds. Yes, that was absolutely minute compared to what was in the unforeseen future, heading his way faster than expected. When he did make that tremendous leap to Real Madrid, he became the original Galactico, the true giant. Here, the first serious problems arose for the player as both a footballer and a person living his life in a diverse and difficult career. He suffered exceptional abuse from Barcelona fans having been just the ninth player to change between the two rival clubs, and was ridiculed for what was seemingly an attempt to ‘get out’ of his first game against his old club. During Real’s Champions League home tie against Bayern Munich, Figo became involved in an argument over a ball-boy and was cautioned. It meant he missed the next game, away to Barcelona, and his claim that he was not aware he was already on two bookings was not the strongest defence against accusations - which he disputed - that he was afraid to make a return to the Nou Camp.
That was all the least of his worries to come though. During Madrid’s Champions League final encounter with Bayer Leverkusen at Hampden Park, Figo was taken off the pitch before the final whistle after what had been, put kindly, an awful and quite profoundly dejected personal display. It was like our very own Harry Kewell: lacking conviction, will, confidence and determination to do anything but complain every time the ball was taken from under his feet. He got himself booked several times when wanting to avoid tricky trips in Champions League matches when the group had already been won by Real Madrid. He showed a lack of devotion to his team and suffered heavy professional and supporter riling because of it.
After the remarkable start to his career, and the glory years directly before and after his record-breaking move, Luis Figo was struggling to maintain form of any kind. Last season he had a long term ankle injury which kept him out for a couple of months all together and recurred whenever he wanted it to. He was suddenly not picked by Luxemburgo, perhaps somewhat ironically because Michael Owen, Raul and Ronaldo were starting as an attacking triple entente. But maybe last season’s sufferings were slightly unfair though. At Euro 2004, after an appalling opening match, the Portuguese captain shone through the entire maroon-stripped team, and led them with considerable leadership and quality to the semi-finals. At the World Cup 2002 he was similarly awesome, impressing many who had begun to think he was a has-been.
Then, towards the end of the last campaign, there was a real turn up for the books. David Beckham had been whining in the press about the coach’s demanding and fatiguing training regime, and placed blame for his abysmal Euro Championships display on the schedule created by the manager. He began missing training sessions. Out of it emerged the coach, who nonchalantly pointed out that whilst many players had taken time off after and before the championships, Luis Figo had attended every single training session and, for that matter, played better for his country than any other squad member too. Whilst Beckham was red-faced, football’s fast-emerging prima donna had proved critics wrong. He was still willing to work hard, and play well.
Rafael Benitez sits down and reads reports from his scouts on these issues, then watches video tape after video tape of Figo playing for club and country, week after week. Some of the performances will be poor, but most will be at least above average. Many are exceptional, as he pulls the heartstrings of a match itself in the midfield, supplies daring and perfectly weighted crosses at unexpected but suitable times, and pulls off successful trick after successful trick to leave defenders looking gormless and rather inadequate in their role. Compare that to the antics of Nunez last season, and sort through in your mind which man you would rather have on our right wing.
Along with Alonso and Gerrard, and perhaps even Zenden if he finally fulfills his great potential, Figo could make up the classiest midfield in the Premiership next season, without a shadow of a doubt. It may not contain the pace of Chelsea’s, or the grit of the Scum’s, or the finesse of Arsenal’s, but that midfield would be perfectly balanced; what, with Gerrard’s bursts of pace and utter determination, Alonso’s superlative reading of a game’s very DNA and sublime passing, Zenden’s constant one-touch passes and peppered crosses into Peter Crouch’s head, and Figo’s majestic wizardry simply dumbfounding the opposing left full-back, Liverpool will be a feared outfit across the middle next season.
The man has offered to take a 30k wage cut, upholds that Liverpool are his favourite club in England and has always wanted to play for them, and most importantly perhaps, wants to play football. If he just wanted money, Figo would have long since jetted off to Qatar and picked up tremendous amounts of foreign oil wages along with the likes of Gabriel Batistuta and Marcel Desailly. However, he has resisted that glorious temptation, and wants to move to England at a considerable financial cost to him. He is approaching the very last years of his career now, and surely he knows that it is time to prove critics wrong once and for all by showcasing his talents in English football on Liverpool’s right wing. Figo’s troubles are behind him, and if they aren’t, then we know that Rafa simply wouldn’t be in for him at all. Rafa doesn’t like people who mess around, he won’t tolerate it. He knows that Luis Figo needs to feel complete once more, and has his own objectives in getting away from Real Madrid which could vastly improve the Liverpool squad.
If Luis Figo is available on a free transfer, which I think he will be very soon, then a one-year deal can do us no harm. If he’s rubbish, we can bench him and use him sparingly. But if, as I suspect, Luis Figo comes good, then getting him into a Liverpool shirt could well be one of the greatest things Rafa will ever do.