“Figo left as a traitor and the people have not forgiven him and will never forgive him”

The former president of Barcelona Joan Gaspart said that Luis Figo left the Barça club “as a traitor and the people have not forgiven him nor will they ever forgive him”, the day that marks the 20th anniversary of the Portuguese player's first return to the Camp Nou with the Real Madrid shirt. “The Barcelona partner did not accept the way to leave Figo. He neither assumed nor accepted it. That is why that night is still remembered today,” added the then president of the Barça club in statements to RAC1.

On October 21, 2000, the Camp Nou was an outcry against Figo, who had left that summer for Real Madrid thanks to Florentino Pérez paying his termination clause (10,000 million pesetas) to fulfill one of his promises made during the electoral campaign for the presidency of Real Madrid.

Until then the Portuguese striker had been the idol of the Barça fans and during the clasico, which Barcelona beat 2-0 under heavy rain in the second half, the latter did not stop whistling at him in a thunderous way and throwing objects at him, forcing him to move away from the wings, and Carles Puyol made a mark to the man of those who are remembered forever.

On Figo's next visit to the Camp Nou as a Madridista, an individual from the public threw a pig's head at him. “Figo called me the night of the Real Madrid elections and told me that he had two tickets. One to fly to Barcelona from Lisbon and another to go to Madrid. And he added that it was up to me to use the one from Barcelona. I had to do what I had to do. he told me, “Gaspart recounted.

But The former Barça president considers that the great culprit of the operation was Florentino Pérez. “He apologized to me and acknowledged that the move was not fair, but that at that time I was only thinking about winning the elections. The move that Florentino made telling his partners that either Figo was coming or he would pay them the annual subscription is something that has never been done again in Spain or in the whole world, “he said.

Next Saturday there will be another classic between Barcelona and Real Madrid at the Camp Nou and the atmosphere in the stands will be diametrically opposite to that of October 21, 2000. There will be no public due to the coronavirus pandemic.