Figo Strikes Fear in U.S. Team

SEOUL — Take a poll of the United States players and ask them which player they are most worried about facing in the World Cup and the answer is unanimous: Luis Figo.

As reigning FIFA world player of the year and soccer’s second-most expensive player of all time behind Zinedine Zidane, Figo is to Portugal what Zidane is to France. In a word, indispensable.

If anyone can lead the Portuguese to the world championship they desperately desire, it’s the 29-year-old millionaire from a working-class suburb of Lisbon. He has done so twice on a smaller scale, so why not on the biggest stage of all?

In 1989, the same year the U.S. qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 40 years, Figo inspired Portugal to victory in the FIFA Under-17 World Championship.

In 1991, the same year the U.S. brought Bora Milutinovic aboard as coach to improve its soccer fortunes, Figo was part of Portugal’s victorious team in the FIFA World Youth [Under-20] Championship.

A wide-ranging player who is happiest on the flanks, Figo has pace, stamina, strength, excellent close control and an accurate shot. Add to that exceptional dribbling skills and a crossing ability that puts him on a par with England’s David Beckham, and you have the complete player, one equally at home as a forward, playmaker or winger.

Small wonder that former Dutch national team coach Louis Van Gaal once said that if he could draft any player in the world, his first choice would be Figo.

“Figo is a great player, with great mentality and desire to win,” Van Gaal said. “He is simply fantastic.”

Portugal’s World Cup coach, Antonio Oliveira, goes even further. “Figo is to this team what Eusebio was to the team of ’66 [that reached the World Cup semifinals],” he said.

Having made his debut for Sporting Lisbon in 1989, it wasn’t long before the teenage Figo--full name Luis Filipe Figo Madeira Caeiro--was being tracked by even more famous clubs outside Portugal.

The Italian clubs Parma and Juventus sought Figo, but it was Johan Cruyff, then coach of Barcelona, who lured him to Spain in 1995, the year before Figo helped Portugal reach the quarterfinals of the 1996 European Championship in England.

Figo became an instant fan favorite at Nou Camp, Barcelona’s famed stadium. In his five years and 172 games for Barcelona, he was a vital contributor to teams that won two Spanish championships, two Spanish Cups, the European Cup Winners’ Cup and the European Super Cup.

But he made one major mistake. He promised that he would never leave.

“I want to reassure fans that Luis Figo, with all the certainty in the world, will be at the Nou Camp on July 24 to start the season,” he told Barcelona’s Sport newspaper on July 9, 2000.

But Figo had not taken into account the resolution of Florentino Perez, who made bringing Figo from Barcelona to Real Madrid the central plank of his campaign for the presidency of Real Madrid.

July 24 duly arrived and it turned out to be the very day that Figo was whisked into Madrid by private jet, having agreed to wear the all-white uniform of Barcelona’s fiercest rival, which paid the Catalan club a then-world record transfer fee of $56.1 million, the amount specified in the buyout clause in Figo’s contract.

With the stroke of a pen, Figo had become the world’s most expensive player and the most despised man in Catalunya.

Figo found the sum almost obscene.

“It’s the law of the market,” he told the Spanish sports daily Marca at the time. “I didn’t ask anyone to pay it and it’s not my fault that they did. If you ask me if I’d pay that amount for any player, then I’d say no. It’s an outrage.”

Outrage or not, the record didn’t last long. One year later, Perez brought Zidane to Real Madrid from Juventus for a staggering $64.45 million.

The arrival of the French World Cup winner took some of the onus off Figo, who had edged Zidane in becoming European player of the year in 2000, the same year he helped Portugal reach the semifinals of the European Championship in Belgium and the Netherlands.

In the season just ended, Figo and Zidane added to their honors when Real Madrid celebrated its centenary year by winning the European Champions Cup. Along the way, however, Figo hurt his right ankle, an injury that has cast doubt over his World Cup.

“I’m not a goal scorer or a defender,” he said. “I’m not a passer. Soccer for me is speed. Quick on the ball, quick thinking, quick to move.”

A bad ankle will slow down Figo, but the U.S. players fear him all the same. On June 5, they will find out if those fears are justified.

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Among the Elite

Luis Figo’s career has taken him to three of the most storied teams in European soccer:

*--* Season Team Games Goals 1989-90 Sporting Lisbon 3 0 1990-91 Sporting Lisbon 0 0 1991-92 Sporting Lisbon 34 1 1992-93 Sporting Lisbon 32 0 1993-94 Sporting Lisbon 31 8 1994-95 Sporting Lisbon 29 7 1995-96 Barcelona 35 5 1996-97 Barcelona 36 4 1997-98 Barcelona 35 5 1998-99 Barcelona 34 7 1999-00 Barcelona 32 9 2000-01 Real Madrid 34 9 2001-02 Real Madrid 25 6

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