Of the second group of galacticos at Real Madrid, Luis Figo was the primary. And he had come from Barcelona because the world’s most costly switch in addition. “It was not just changing a club,” he mentioned nearly 24 years after his €62m euro transfer between one of many fiercest rivalries in soccer. “I was one of the captains … I had everything in Barcelona but had to decide what was the best for my future.”
Portuguese former footballer Luis Figo(AFP)
What that meant was not simply stress however being within the press on a regular basis. “Press conferences were a little different than what you have in these days (where) it is much more controlled. And not everyday you have to come out in the press,” he instructed Hindustan Times on Monday sitting in entrance of a giant montage of his superb moments.
Hindustan Times – your quickest supply for breaking news! Read now.
“But, anyway, I think pressure makes me awake and in the first year we won the league.” Success within the Champions League, for which Sony Pictures Network has prolonged its unique broadcast and digital rights in India until 2026-27, got here in 2001-02 and there was one other league title subsequent time period.
By then, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo Nazario, David Beckham had joined. Real Madrid, in response to then skipper Fernando Hierro, had 5 of the world’s greatest 10 gamers. “For us it was an amazing moment, nice years to remember,” mentioned Figo who lives in Madrid. But the galacticos gained nothing for the following three seasons. “We won what we won. So much in sports depends on the circumstances. Talent helps you to have much more opportunities to win but it doesn’t assure you that you are going to be champions of everything. If it was like that, it would not have been important to play,” Figo mentioned from Madrid on a Zoom name.
That Figo gained one Champions League appears like an aberration however he mentioned every of his 103 matches within the competitors – the previous Portugal captain is amongst 47 gamers with over a century of video games within the match – was particular. “Even when I didn’t have a good result. Because I had dreamt of wanting a chance to play in this competition and I didn’t imagine when I was dreaming that I would play so many games.”
From 2024-25, Champions League might be performed in a special format. The group league might be scrapped and 36 groups will play eight video games every, 4 every dwelling and away, however in opposition to totally different opponents. The high eight will qualify for the knockouts the place they are going to be joined by eight extra after a playoff spherical between the ninth and twenty fourth groups. Figo mentioned it wouldn’t scale back any additional possibilities of a group like Porto successful the title. Eight video games as a substitute of six within the first spherical now will give such groups extra probability to move, he mentioned. But what it’s going to additionally imply is “more big games in the beginning which is good for the fans.”
It would additionally imply the variety of video games going up from 125 to 189. At a time when the typical enjoying time in Premier League final time period was 98.27 minutes and with an expanded Club World Cup beginning subsequent yr, would that be truthful on gamers? “It’s complicated, no?,” he mentioned.
“When you want more money, you have to play more games,” he mentioned. The new format may improve UEFA’s income from Champions League from €3.5 billion to €4.5 billion. “You reduce games, you don’t have so much solidarity fund to distribute for everyone. It could mean clubs will have to pay less to the players. But, being a football player, I understand that players have to be more included in discussions and (before taking) these decisions.”
Real Madrid have high gamers now as do Manchester City however Figo wasn’t certain there could be one other galacticos. What he’s surer about is Portugal’s probability of successful one other European championship. “Oh yeah! Portugal are one of the best national teams in the world and one of my favourites along with England, Spain, France and maybe Germany; you never know because they are playing at home.”
Not wishing to check generations was a recurrent theme within the dialog however Figo referenced the previous when Saudi Arabia was talked about. “Let me think, I had a chance to go in 2004-05. It was nothing like this.” The Saudi Pro League has generated curiosity and soccer is a sport Saudi Arabia is keen about, which makes it totally different from China, however “they have to continue to invest in grassroots, in facilities, in good coaches and not only on players that are already nearing the end of their careers.”
Source: www.hindustantimes.com
