A lie from Futre to Florentino, key to Figo’s signing for Madrid

A lie from the legend of Atletico MadridPaulo Futre a Florentino Perez and the pre-contract signed by the then representative of Luis Figo, Jose Veigawere two of the triggers that made it easy for the Portuguese footballer to leave Barcelona in the summer of 2000 and sign for Real Madrid, according to a documentary about the operation that changed the world of football.

In the direction of David Tryhorn and Ben Nicholas and produced by Pitch Productions, “The Figo Case: The signing of the century” is a documentary film that attempts to fix the chronology of the signing and provide more details about the Portuguese’s decision to exchange the Barça jacket for Barça in the white of the eternal rival.

In the 104-minute piece that aired this Thursday on the Netflix platform, some of the people who closely experienced the signing gave their version. From the footballer, who made the final decision; went through the ideologue of the signing, Florentino Pérez, the former president of Barcelona Joan Gaspart, Pep Guardiola -Figo’s best friend in the Barça dressing room- and Jorge ValdanoBesides others.

But, as the documentary makes clear, fTwo compatriots of Figo -Paulo Futre and José Veiga- became the strategists of a transaction that has become ‘persona non grata’ for Camp Nou fans, Luis Figo. who exploded against the Portuguese in his successive visits to the stadium with the white elastic.

Futre, a friend of Figo’s representative, was the first person to contact Florentino Pérez, at the time a candidate for the presidency of Real Madrid, to show his interest in signing the Barcelona captain, who was talking to umpteenth improvement in his contract.

As the former Atlético player revealed in the documentary, he called Veiga in the presence of Florentino Pérez to explain Real Madrid’s interest in the Portuguese star. The representative, in disbelief, hung up the phone. And Futre pretended that he was still talking to his friend.

“The 30 or 40 seconds I pretended to talk to Jose Veiga to think of something to say was the key to the whole operation”defends Futre, adding that he had then agreed with Florentino Pérez on a commission of “six million euros” that he and his friend would share if the transfer was successful.

A seed that grew even more when Jose Veiga signed a pre-contract with the Real Madrid candidate. “I told Jose to talk to whoever he needed to talk to” recalled Figo, who denied that he had signed the pre-agreement.

A version that the representative reels off: “There was a pre-contract, yes. I will sign it. Figo could not sign it (…) Luis Figo never saw that contract, Florentino never had a copy. There was only one version. Before signing it, I called Luis Figo and read the entire contract. I asked Luis: Can I sign? And Luis told me I could sign it.”

But the Portuguese international, as the film recalls, rushed in the same summer with statements to the Barcelona media showing his love for the Barça club. “This will be my shirt.” revealed from his holidays in Sardinia in an interview with Diario Sport shortly before his signing with Real Madrid became official.

That’s when the Veiga-Futre duo flew to the Italian island to convince the footballer. The reason: a penalty clause of 5,000 million pesetas (30 million euros) in case the operation is not carried out.

In the documentary, however, Florentino Pérez clarified the validity of this contractual requirement: “It was a motivating clause, nothing more. Figo never signed (the pre-contract), so it is a contract that Veiga and I sign that could be considered as a statement of purpose.

In Sardinia, transfer agents convinced Figo to board a flight to travel to Lisbon, where Florentino Pérez convinced him to agree to Real Madrid.

The soap opera, according to Gaspart’s account, took its final turn with a call from the Portuguese to the newly elected president of Barcelona asking for a bank guarantee of “500 million pesetas” to guarantee his continuation in Barcelona. Some facts denied by the main character in the documentary. “It’s a lie,” he said.

Finally, Figo signed the contract with Real Madrid, which a few days later would pay a 60 million termination clause to officially include the footballer.

A decision that the former Barça club player does not regret. This is how he defends it in the documentary that reflects the ins and outs of a signing that means before and after in the football industry.