Figo documentary: Figo goes to Real Madrid from Barcelona. The most controversial signing in world football ever. When Figo went to take a corner kick on his return to the Camp Nou, a fan threw a pigs head at his feet.
I can’t think of another signing as incredible as this one. A beloved player goes to play for his team’s rival at the height of his football career. The famed El Clasico that is Barcelona versus Real Madrid takes on a new meaning when its best players signing with their hated rival. Is it like Messi joining Real Madrid? Maybe not that extreme but it’s close.
What’s often forgotten too is just how go of a football player Figo was. Such a smooth player on the soccer ball. Figo was always tempting defenders to try to dive in and win the ball from him.
This new Figo documentary on Netflix spotlights one of the most contentious deals in football history and the extraordinary football player at the center of the storm: Luís Figo.
The Figo Affair: The Transfer that Changed Football. Coming soon from Netflix Espana is this amazing Figo documentary on his switch from one famous Spanish soccer club to their arch rival. Luís Figo. Florentino Pérez. 22 years later, the people at the centre of one of Europe’s most controversial football transfers tell their stories. The Figo Affair: Coming to Netflix 25 August.
More on the Luis Figo Netflix documentary from Yahoo:
The film is directed by duo David Tryhorn and Ben Nicholas, who directed Pitch’s Netflix documentary biopic “Pelé,” which launched last year. Pitch’s head of production, Marie-Denise Dormis, line produced the film. It was developed by Max Dobbyn, who also acted as consulting producer, after joining as head of development from Lightbox in 2020.
Tryhorn said: “After the success of ‘Pelé,’ Ben and I were delighted to partner with Netflix again on ‘El Caso Figo.’ 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. Focusing 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 wanted the film to feel like a Hitchcockian thriller, one that plays with notions of the truth. We also only wanted to interview people with first-hand testimonies of the transfer so that the drama could play out in the present tense,” Tryhorn added. “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.”
Really looking forward to watching this Figo documentary. What with the recent Maradona documentary and the All or Nothing series on Amazon, there have been a lot of excellent soccer documentaries lately.