In the past, players had moved between Real Madrid and Barcelona, and it wasn’t that big of a deal. For example, in 1994, Michael Laudrup went from Barça to Madrid. Barcelona fans still like him. But all of that doesn’t compare to Luis Figo’s transfer in July 2000. He was Barcelona’s best player, and arguably, the best in the world at the time. And he left for Real Madrid.
To understand why Figo’s situation was different, we have to look at how it went down.
Figo had helped the Blaugrana win successive La Liga titles, two Copa del Reys and the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, among other trophies. He wasn’t just a star for Barça, he was the star.
But when Figo returned to the Camp Nou in a white shirt, it was chaos. Fans threw objects at the player, most famously, a pig’s head. The hate for him would be eternal. Why?
It started with a secret pre-contract agreement brokered between Figo and a man named Florentino Perez. At the time, Perez was just a man trying to win the Real Madrid presidency.
Perez was seen as a longshot to win the presidency over incumbent Lorenzo Sanz. Sanz had helped Real win the European Cup in 1998 and 2000. He figured fans were satisfied with his work. What he didn’t count on was that the club’s financial health would become a source of controversy, and that Perez had an ace up his sleeve in the form of a mega-signing.
At the same time, Barcelona were holding the elections that would eventually result in Joan Gaspart winning the presidency.
Figo was looking for a new contract but was told to wait until after the elections to get a seal of approval from the new president.
Perez contacted Figo’s agent, Jose Veia, with an interesting proposal. If Perez won the presidency, Figo would join Real. If Perez lost, Figo would get 1 million euro. Veia and Paulo Futre, the former Atletico Madrid player who acted as an intermediary, saw this as essentially, free money. No way would Perez win, right?
What, perhaps, they didn’t expect was for Perez to campaign on the promise that he already had Figo signed up. Real Madrid fans were ecstatic at the thought.
Figo told his teammates not to worry, that he was not leaving. He was pictured in SPORT holding a Barcelona shirt, saying he wasn’t going. He assured fans no pre-contract existed. Sanz laughed that Perez might now claim he had signed supermodel Claudia Schiffer.
But it was all true. Perez won. Madrid triggered Figo’s release clause of 62 million euro, the most expensive player to date.
What wasn’t clear was how much Figo approved of the deal. But there was a penalty if Figo didn’t go through with it. If Perez won, they had agreed to pay a stunning 30 million euro penalty if the transfer wasn’t completed.
Batistuta moves from Fiorentina to AS Roma
“One title with this club is worth more than 10 with Milan or Juventus”, Batistuta famously stated when asked about his reluctance to leave Fiorentina.
Few footballers have embodied a club and connected with the fans as the man they called Batigol did in Florence. However, at 31, he finally allowed his head to rule over his heart and moved to Rome looking for that maiden Serie A title that had proved so elusive in Florence.
If Batistuta was keen to move to the capital, Roma were ready to welcome him with open arms. Still smarting from seeing cross-town rivals Lazio clinch the Scudetto the previous season, the Giallorossi parted way with £23.5m for the Argentine, still a world record fee for a player in his thirties.
The investment paid off handsomely, as Batistuta’s 20 goals in 28 Serie A appearances drove Roma to their first title in 28 years. He lined up against his former club the following season and eight minutes from time, he buried them – with a goal that Fabio Capello later hailed as a “masterpiece.”
At that stage the game looked to be petering out into a scoreless draw: Fiorentina coach Fatih Terim’s disciplined 4-5-1 had smothered Capello’s usually fluent 3-4-1-2 formation, and Batistuta appeared out of sorts. Then – suddenly – Guigou’s header dropped to him 25-yards out, and a moment later Toldo was clawing in thin air as a thunderous volley flew high into the net.
The Giallorossi were 1-0 ahead, and everyone in the Stadio d’Olimpico went wild.
Well, not quite everyone. Because rather than celebrate with his team-mates, who hugged and grabbed and kissed him, Batistuta was lost in his own private world. He shut his eyes, as if to holding back tears and when he eventually walked back to the half-way line, his head was bowed, like a sinner looking for penance.