Barely seven months had passed since the beginning of the millennium. The euro was close but in Spain we were still dealing with the peseta and also, we dodged the dreaded 'Effect 2000' but what no one expected was the signing of Luis Figo by Real Madrid. The Portuguese, Barça's top star, made the airlift as a great electoral promise fulfilled by Florentino Pérez, who won the Real Madrid presidential elections, and paid 60 million euros for him.
Now, in the middle of 2020, that operation and all its repercussions are still making people talk. From Universo Valdano, Luis Figo wanted to explain his version 20 years later. “The summer was full of information, news … and there came a time when I had to decide. The elections are won by (Florentino Pérez) in Madrid. I knew if I was going to win or not, I only knew through the news he was reading. He did not know Florentino, nor did he know how the issue of the elections was. Maybe he knew the results … to be so sure. My representative signs a commitment with him, he wins and I am here to make a decision about my future “, began the one who was a right winger at Sporting, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter.
Then, the one from Almada explained that the little confidence he had in Gaspart was what made him change his destination. “At that time, the candidate who wins in Barcelona is Gaspart and, of course, I don't trust Gaspart a hair. He can promise me the moon but he is a person who does not tell me anything. So I made the decision to assume the responsibility of coming to Madrid “, sentence together with Jorge Valdano.
Valdano: “When I met Florentino I thought he was naive”
The Argentine, an interviewer on this occasion, acknowledged having little confidence in Florentino Pérez when he ran for the president of Real Madrid against Lorenzo Sanz. “When I met him I thought he was naive and I was clearly naive. I understood that it was impossible for him to unseat a president who had just won the Champions League and he told me clearly:” I know Madrid's partners better than you “and indeed,” Valdano acknowledged.