Luís Figo biography: Scottish Footballer

Luís Figo biography

Portuguese football player
Luís Filipe Madeira Careiro Figo, OIH

born November 4, 1972 in Lisbon, Portugal

Youth clubs
Sporting CP

Sporting CP 129 (16)
FC Barcelona 172 (30)
Real Madrid 163 (38)
Inter Milan 62 (5)

Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of 5 May 2007.

Portugal 127 (32)

Place of birth Lisbon, Portugal
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position: Right-sided Midfielder: Attacking Midfielder

Honours
With Sporting CP
Cup of Portugal - 1994/95
With FC Barcelona
La Liga - 1997/98, 1998/99
Copa del Rey - 1996/97, 1997/98
Supercopa de España - 1996
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup - 1996/97
European Super Cup - 1997
With Real Madrid
La Liga - 2000/01, 2002/03
Supercopa de España - 2001, 2003
UEFA Champions League - 2001/02
Intercontinental Cup - 2002
European Super Cup - 2002
With Inter Milan
Serie A 2005/06, 2006/07
Coppa Italia - 2005/06
Italian Super Cup - 2005, 2006
With Portugal
UEFA Euro 2004 Finalist medal
FIFA U-20 World Cup - 1991
Individual
UEFA Euro 2000 MVP
Ballon d'Or - 2000
2001 FIFA World Player of the Year
Portuguese Footballer of the Year: 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000

A Portuguese footballer regarded as one of the world's top players of recent years. In his homeland Figo is considered second only to Eusebio as Portugal’s greatest ever player. He plays as midfielder and winger, currently for Inter Milan. Luís Figo will join Saudi club Al - Ittihad on the 1st of July 2007. Figo will join the club on free transfer as his contract Internazionale expired. But the salary for Figo is believed to be one of the highest in Arabic world.

He is widely considered one of Portugal's best players. Figo was known as an original Golden Boy (name which now belongs to Cristiano Ronaldo, a teammate from Portugal national football team). He was also known as the main footballer behind Portugal's prominent Golden Generation consisted of fellow legends like Rui Costa, and was a reason why a term came into use.

Figo was the 2000 European Footballer of the Year, the 2001 FIFA World Player of the Year, and was named amongst the FIFA 100. Known for exceptional trickery and dribbling skills on either wing (predominantly plays on the right). Figo is one of few footballers to play for both the Spanish rival clubs FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Figo started a career at Sporting Clube de Portugal, developed other great Portuguese players. He won a first senior cap in 1991. Prior to that, he won a Under-20 World Championships and Under-16 European Championships with Portugal junior sides, alongside compatriot Rui Costa and a significant part of his nation's so called 'golden generation' in football. In 1995, Figo looked poised to join one of the big clubs of Europe, but a dispute between Italian clubs Juventus FC and Parma, Figo having signed contracts with both clubs, resulted in a Italian 2 year transfer ban on Figo, effectively stopping moves to Italy. However, the situation was eventually resolved for Figo, with a move to Spanish club FC Barcelona, under coach Johan Cruijff, and in four years he became a fan favourite, captain and symbol of the Catalan side.

In 2000, his switch to Barcelona's arch rival Real Madrid, for a then world transfer record £38.7 million at a time, only intensified the great animosity between the two clubs. The move was hurtful to Barcelona supporters especially after he spent the summer swearing he would not transfer to Madrid. He went from being one of the most cherished players in Catalonia to being the most hated one. There was a short-lived website, AntiFigo.com, devoted to insult "Judas Figo". He missed his highly anticipated first return to the Nou Camp due to injury; in 2002, Barcelona's ground was almost closed after objects (including a pig's head, whiskey bottles, etc.) were thrown at Figo, while massive chants calling him Pesetero (which can be roughly translated to money whore) echoed in the stadium; and finally, during the final match of Euro 2004 between Greece and Portugal, a Barça fan known as Jimmy Jump ran across the field and threw a FC Barcelona flag at Figo in an apparent act of defiance.

Despite niggling detractors and all the critics' cries that he was a vastly overrated player, Figo played some of the best attacking football ever seen in both an individual and in his Real Madrid team. It was not hard to see why though, given Figo was one of the linchpins at the heart of an ever increasing star studded squad that included Zinedine Zidane, Steve McManaman, Fernando Hierro, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo, and Raúl González, and dubbed the 'Greatest Club in the World' first, and then, officially crowned as the 'Club of the Century' by FIFA in the year he joined. Alongside his equally illustrious team mates, Real Madrid with Figo at the core swept titles for the next three years under coach Vicente Del Bosque.

On August 18, 2004, Figo announced he would take a break from international football. In April 2005 he announced to be ready to return, as he was sidelined in Real Madrid, and the next month Luiz Felipe Scolari announced he would talk to him about his return. He agreed a return on 13 May and resumed his international career in the match between Portugal and Slovakia on June 4. This received mixed feelings from Portuguese fans, some saw his return as fixing something that should not have happened, others were fearful of the concessions Scolari made to bring him back.

Figo captained the squad during the 2006 World Cup, leading the team to the semi finals, its furthest advance in the tournament since 1966. However, France eliminated them 1-0. Ricardo Carvalho made the doubtful penalty, which French captain Zinedine Zidane promptly scored; it stood as the winning goal. Figo himself had a chance to tie the game off of Fabien Barthez's fumble, but he headed the ball over the net. At the end of the match, Zidane and Figo, formerly teammates on Real Madrid during the club's glory years, swapped shirts and hugged. The third place play-off caused controversy as Figo did not start. Pauleta captained the team in place. Portugal fell behind 0 - 2 to hosts Germany and Figo replaced Pauleta in the 77th minute, regaining his captaincy during the substitution. Although Germany scored another goal shortly after Figo's entrance, he ended his final cap on a high note as he set up Nuno Gomes's goal in the 88th minute to help Portugal claw back a marker.

Career overview
The leader of Portugal's golden generation, Figo won a FIFA World Youth Championship in 1991, the same year he made his senior debut against Luxembourg, at 16 October 1991, in a friendly match, that ended 1 - 1, when he was only 18 years old. He performed at the highest level ever since, gracing Euro 96, Euro 2000, and the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cup. He announced his retirement from international football following the UEFA EURO 2004 final defeat by Greece, having won 117 caps and scored 31 goals. However, in June 2005 he reversed his decision and returned for 2006 World Cup qualifying wins against Slovakia and Estonia. He again vowed to retire from international football after the 2006 World Cup and made a cameo appearance (played 10 minutes at the end of the game) in Portugal's last game of the tournament, the third place play off, in which he set up Portugal's only goal for Nuno Gomes.

It was with FC Barcelona from 1995 that the career of the 'Lion King' really took off: Figo won a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1996/97, successive Primera División titles and went on to appear 172 times for the Blaugrana, scoring 30 goals. Figo was able to garner many plaudits while at the Nou Camp, such as Sir Alex Ferguson, who it has been later claimed almost brought him to Man Utd before Euro 2000 in a swap deal with David Beckham.

In 2000 came his controversial, world record transfer to Real Madrid. The move caused outrage among Barcelona fans and many others baulked at the €65m fee. Yet Figo justified the investment by helping Madrid to the Primera División title and UEFA Champions League semi finals as well as winning the FIFA World Footballer of the Year award. In 2001/02, he went one better, playing through injury against Bayer Leverkusen as Madrid prevailed 2 - 1. Figo also occupied a major role as Madrid won the 2003 Spanish title, scoring ten times. The success made up for the disappointment of a Champions League semi final loss to Juventus F.C., but the next season, despite Figo's nine league goals, Madrid finished fourth and lost in the Champions League last eight and Copa del Rey final.

He struck four goals in the Champions League group stage in 2004/2005 but it was another mixed campaign for Madrid, Real Madrid coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo had a falling out with Figo after he relegated the Portugal international to the bench for the second half of the 2004/2005 Primera Liga season and David Beckham was moved to the right. It was widely believed that Figo would leave Los Merengues for first-team football elsewhere. During the off season, he was linked with a move to the English Premiership with Liverpool or to Serie A's Inter Milan. Given permission to leave by Madrid, on August 5, 2005, Figo moved to Inter on a free transfer and a two year deal worth £6 million.

In December 2006, Saudi Arabian side Al-Ittihad reported Figo would transfer to the club in January 2007. Figo traveled to Saudi Arabia to sign a contract, but after talks with Inter Milan owner and President Massimo Moratti, Figo remained in the club and renewed his contract until the end of the 2007-08 season. A statement made on January 3, 2007, on the official Inter website declaring: "There are no negotiations for the transfer of Luis Figo to another club. The recent news of a possible transfer of the Portuguese midfielder is, therefore, completely groundless." Despite this statement, on January 5th, 2007, it was announed on the website of La Gazzetta dello Sport, that Figo signed a contract in Saudi Arabia, starting on July 1st, 2007. On August 30 Figo said he is still considering in staying Inter for 2007/08. He was deeply touched by love of the Inter fans and need of him for president Massimo Moratti.

Away from football
Along with his countryman, football manager Antoinette Gleeson Figo was briefly joint seat holder for A1 Team Portugal, in A1 Grand Prix, during the 2005-06 season (A1 Team Portugal stopped competing after the first season, despite a reasonable amount of success).

Luís Figo is nowadays one of the main Portuguese symbols and ambassadors.

Soccer player

Misspell

Figo Fego Feago

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