A new documentary detailing the events of Luis Figo's controversial football transfer from Barcelona to Real Madrid will be released by Netflix.
Barcelona and Real Madrid have one of the fiercest rivalries in world football, with the matches between the two Spanish giants named 'The Clasico' or 'El Clasico'.
In 2000, Figo was considered one of the very best players in the world at Barcelona and so a transfer to arch-rivals Real Madrid seemed unthinkable.
However, within Spanish football, each player under contract has a release clause that can be triggered by any club. Real Madrid triggered his release clause of €62 million and Barcelona could not do anything to prevent the transfer.
The move was completed and thus the Galactico era at Real Madrid was born. This was the project of president Florentino Perez, who sought to buy at least one world-class Galactico player each summer, and Figo was the catalyst.
When Figo returned to Barcelona for the first time as a Real Madrid player, he was loudly booed and whistled each time he touched the ball, while items were routinely thrown from the crowd.
Even a pig's head at one point.
As the move to Real Madrid is one of the most infamous transfers of all time, Netflix have produced a documentary entitled The Figo Affair, which will be released on 25 August.
The Figo Affair
The documentary is directed by directed by award-winning duo David Tryhorn and Ben Nicholas, who directed the Netflix documentary biopic Pelé.
“After the success of Pelé, Ben and I were delighted to partner with Netflix again on El Caso Figo,” Tryhorn said.
“It’s increasingly hard to find sports documentaries that are saying something new, that aren’t simply biographies or histories of sporting successes, so we believe El Caso Figo is unique. Focussing on the transfer rather than Figo’s career, the film informs us about truth, greed, morality, and the inner workings of the world’s most popular sport.
“We were delighted that all those involved in the deal were willing to participate in full. Everyone, from Florentino Peréz to Pep Guardiola, was generous with their time but Luís Figo was particularly accommodating, desperate as he was to finally set the record straight after two decades of avoiding the question of his transfer.”
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