Luis Figo—legendary winger, Portuguese icon, and the man who sparked one of the most infamous transfers in football history. Real Madrid’s president, Florentino Perez, made the unthinkable happen when he snatched Figo from Barcelona, instantly turning the Camp Nou faithful against him. The fallout was brutal: fans hurled insults, even a pig’s head, onto the pitch as a sign of betrayal. Figo had stirred one of the most intense rivalries football has ever seen.
Fast forward to the present, and Figo is still drawing fire—this time, though, it’s over a misquoted interview at this year’s Ballon d’Or ceremony last night. A Real Madrid fan page on X (formerly Twitter) twisted his words, and let’s just say Figo wasn’t amused. Threatening legal action, he’s set out to make sure that his words are his own—proving that while he may have retired from the game, he hasn’t lost his edge for a good confrontation.
Yesterday night marked a historic event in football when the entire set of Real Madrid representatives involving players and the president (Florentino Perez), including the most anticipated player to be crowned the prestigious trophy, ‘Vinicius Junior,’ boycotted the entire event upon hearing news that Manchester City midfielder Rodri was going to be crowned as the winner.
This was a shock not just for the Brazilian winger and his club but to many football fans across social media and the entire world. Many argued that having won the UCL, La Liga, and domestic cups in Spain, Vinicius performed immensely for his team, having 37 goal contributions and scoring in important games for his club at the highest level across the entirety of last season. (Stats by transfermarkt)
On the other hand, City fans argued that Rodri was fundamental to their season in winning the Premier League last year and that the Spaniard had won the Euros most recently this year with his home nation, ‘Spain’, as well. But, then Dani Carvajal of Real Madrid was also the recipient of the same Euro medal and trophy that Rodri had won, in addition to the domestic league (and cups) and UCL for that year that he won with Real Madrid, which made the Madrid fans counter them with this logic.
In all honesty, it was a controversial moment, and there were reactions and opinions from all sides, as they should. Vinicius Jr. replied by stating that even though it takes him 10 times more effort to do it, he’ll do it again, which showed his resilience and strong character, even wanting to do more after already producing such a brilliant season last year.
But amidst this Madrid boycott, there was one Real Madrid figure last night who was spotted at the ceremony. Yes, that was the former Madrid star Luis Figo, who was, I’m sure, handling his side of the media duties for the night. But as the event was being broadcasted and talked about over various social media forums, one such Madrid fan account called ‘Madrid Xtra’ who are a news aggregator account on X for all kinds of Real Madrid-centric news decided to get into a feisty spat with Figo.
In a night where they were constantly covering the event and posting about the ceremony, the X account posted one such tweet where they misquoted the former Madrid legend by captioning the post in such a way that it implied that the Portuguese winger was discrediting the Ballon D’or ceremony.
It posted “The Ballon D’or is a prestigious award, until today,” with Figo’s image from one of the interviews taken in the ceremony last night. To this, many fans wondered whether Figo’s comments were a result of the injustice done to Vinicius Jr who plays for the same club as the legendary Figo. Fans thought maybe Figo was just showing some support for his fellow Portuguese-speaking disciple after Vinicius controversially missed out on the award to Rodri last night.
However, a few minutes later, Luis Figo called out the X fan account by quoting their tweet and stating that he had not mentioned the quoted words and that he would see them in court with a suit potentially for misrepresentation of news and spreading of false rumours. Fans across social media were quick enough to react to this, with many predicting that because of the timing and real-time nature of Figo’s tweet, he must’ve posted his tweet from the Ballon Dor ceremony while attending the event last night.
Sometime later, however, there was some cooldown noticed in the heated situation when both of the parties, Figo and ‘MadridXtra’, deleted their respective posts, which tells us that they might have reached a peaceful treaty behind the scenes. However, some fans pointed to the fact that all of this chaos was created by ‘MadridXtra’ as they cut and pieced bits and pieces of the interview and represented it out of context for clicks, which is easy, especially considering Figo’s first language is not English.
Whatever it may be, the beef of the year in the footballing world is squashed. Over. Finito. But, in classic Figo style, he’s taken his stance with that unmistakable mix of poise and edge—reminding everyone that he’s no stranger to tackling challenges head-on. Whether it’s crossing enemy lines from Barcelona to Madrid or dealing with internet rumour mills, Figo proves he’s still got the fight in him. It’s almost poetic: a player who once had to dodge flying pig heads now skilfully sidestepping the nonsense on X. One thing’s clear—Figo may be retired, but he’s still very much in the game.