By Tony Frielos (famous Spanish sports journalist)
We Portuguese are very proud. Frielos (Spain's leading sports journalist)
We Portuguese are proud and honored to have a compatriot like Fico, an example of good manners, selflessness, intelligence and reason. What is even more gratifying is that Figo's contribution to his country is by no means limited to the green field, but he has also played a commendable role in bringing Portuguese people closer to other peoples, which is why we cannot fail to applaud him.
Neto, Director of Portugal's Investment, Trade and Tourism AgencyFigo's mother, telling the story of Figo as a child
Life is like a crossroads that sends us to different destinations. When Maria? Joanna? Pestana? Madeira and Antonio? Figo decided to unite their lives and have a child a few years later, they seemed destined to raise a celebrity, a bright spot of the new century in international football and, of course, in Portuguese society: Luiz? Filipe? Madeira? Cahiero? Figo.
Maria? Joanna was born on September 2, 1949, in Jurumeña, a small town 10 kilometers from the Portuguese-Spanish border town of Olivença, a few days after her arrival in the world, her parents moved their family to the northern town of Elvis. The large family (two families plus 10 children) earned their living as farmers, while also doing some charcoal making, now lost in Portugal.
Not far south of the town of Elvis, Antonio Fico's house was built on April 4, 1943, in the town of Elvis. Fico was born on April 20, 1943, in Reguengos. Antonio? Figo spent his childhood in the mountains of Lopera, where he dropped out of school at the age of 11 in order to make ends meet. He was a very good clerk in a department store until the age of 21, when he was conscripted into one of the garrison regiments of the Armed Police in the capital, Lisbon, and at the age of 24 he returned to his hometown, where he worked as a clerk for one more year before saving up enough money to realize his dream. "There was no industry, no entertainment, no future, and the only pastime for the men was to sit in the barrooms and kill the boredom. I didn't want to spend my life wasted like those around me, so I was determined to get out of there." So he recalls. The decision was painful and sad, as he had to leave his parents alone in the old country, while his elder brothers had already started their families. "A supplier friend who was in the store where I was working at the time assured me that he had acquaintances in Lisbon who could offer me a job in the Cova neighborhood on the edge of the city."
With courage and determination, Antonio? Figo packed his bags and said goodbye to a familiar land and traveled to an unfamiliar destination. Antonio? Fico, on the other hand, met his fellow countryman Maria Joaquín at the inn. Fico met María Joanna, a fellow countrywoman who had also dropped out of school to work in a garment factory. Antonio Fico and María Joaquín. Antonio Fico and María Joanna fell in love. Antonio Fico and María Joaquín fell in love with each other and were officially married in a church ceremony on July 17, 1971, soon after which they had their first and only child. Maria Joanna was pregnant. María Joanna was pregnant but never missed work at the factory, and when she was due on October 20, 1972, the baby didn't move at all until November 4, after 12 hours of labor pains, Antonio Fico, the first-time father, didn't go to the hospital because he had no idea what he was doing. Antonio Figo did not come to the hospital because he had to go to work, even though it was already 9 pm. The baby was beautiful, weighing 4,300 grams, 47 centimeters long and with dark green eyes. The young parents named him Luis? Felipe? Madeira? Cahiero Fico. Fico, after his father, the first name is in honor of his grandfather Luis, the second is dedicated to his godfather Philippe, and the third and fourth represent the mother's and father's families, respectively. The child, registered by the Lisbon Registry in December 1972, with registration number A series 795209 and personal number 3230, is Fico, who has just been elected 2001 World Footballer of the Year.
The St. George's Hospital, where Fico was born, is situated in the Plaza de Chile, now almost deserted, but the birth of little Fico here caused a radical change in the lives of his parents, and a great sense of responsibility made them work even harder, and with their years of savings and a small loan, the young couple decided to open their own business, with the help of Antonio? Antonio Figo and Maria Joanna quit their jobs. Joanna resigned successively, rented a small storefront, half a convenience store and half a bar, while the little Fico's cradle is placed in the small store. (ii)
Fico's mother, Maria Joanna, recalls Fico's childhood. Joanna recalls Fico's childhood years always with a loving smile, "Luis was not in good health since he was a child, always had a stomach ache or an earache, and sometimes it really hurt and he cried non-stop, and for the first ten months he had to go to the children's hospital almost every other day, but he was much better around the age of one, and those pains and illnesses disappeared " This was an attentive mother who kept a growth diary of her child, detailing every year, every month, every day, the growth of little Fico, even the smallest gestures he made, and to this day Joanna still keeps a blue envelope containing baby Fico's soft blonde hair. Many fans may be surprised that Figo's hair is not black. This involves the complexity of Portugal's high number of foreign immigrants and ethnicity, where many small children's hair changes as they age, and Figo is no exception.
Figo's appetite was poor, he only liked to eat fish and tomatoes and rice, and his parents were always worried because he was too thin, malnourished, and much less fit than his peers, and most of all he played soccer on the streets. He surprised his mother by buying a pair of sneakers with the pocket money he had saved!
(Father speaking ........) (FIGO's cousin ......)
When he was in elementary school Figo loved to wear long hair and was mistaken for a girl from time to time, recalling those times Figo said, "I cried every time I got a haircut, I thought it was a character to have long blonde hair." On the street soccer team, he was a mainstay and had two idols, Portuguese Xarana and Argentine Maradona.
Only children are not rare in Portugal, but Figo's parents were determined not to have any more, with his mother Maria? Joanna said: "Antonio and I clearly remember the hardships of our childhood, although we did not starve, but we were always housebound and empty-handed, which forced us to leave home, away from our relatives, to work abroad. We both earned just barely enough to live on, and both wanted to provide our son with the basics as much as possible and even a little better, so no more children." They were busy from morning till night, so Figo was well aware that his parents did a lot for him, but he wasn't very good at studying, he didn't do well in math or music, and like many other kids, Figo was hooked on soccer, so he didn't take his studies seriously. Father Antonio said: "I was always angry with him, warning him that if he didn't take his studies seriously in the future he would be like us, busy all day long trying to make a living, we thought our child deserved to have a better life than he had, but it was only up to him. It didn't help for a few years though, he never gave the high marks I like to see."
Figo, a little older than 10 years old, had already begun his first relationship when Ruth, a girl from the same neighborhood, came to Fico's house one day and handed him an envelope containing a courting letter, which, of course, wasn't the first heart Fico had broken.Fico's cousin, Paula, said, "Even though Fico had been an introverted shy kid since he was a kid, his naturalness and simplicity made him attractive, and he had a unique way of making girlfriends in the He had a unique approach in terms of getting a girlfriend."
(He went to school early in the morning and played soccer in the afternoons, and while he still passed, he never got high grades. But he was still a good student in the eyes of his teachers and students)
His place was by the window looking out onto the stadium where he started
his soccer career. The stadium near his home
Seeing that Fico was not interested in studying, his father, Antonio, talked to the director of the Pastilla club, just three streets away from their home, about the idea of placing Fico in a junior training class, at the age of 12, which was allowed to be registered in accordance with the Portuguese regulations, and so he was able to join the Stubal Regional Football Association, which belongs to the Portuguese Football Federation (FFP), in the 1984/1985 season, with the registration number BI-985.
Figo was soon wearing his first proper uniform: a white T-shirt, red shorts and red and white socks. The club played in the regional league, but didn't have its own pitch, and matches were played at the Cova Community Stadium, so if the field was occupied, the poor coach had to take the boys around, either on some indoor pitch or in the field for warm-ups or passing drills, a rather pathetic state of affairs. Figo recalls: "It was not an enjoyable campaign, we were playing in the Stubar Regional Junior League and I remember losing every game by at least 10 goals, and although the morale of the team was high, I must admit that it was pretty poor, and we only won one game in the whole season, which was against La Marennes. It's not surprising though, we didn't train properly at all and went east every home game. I was playing center forward, the youngest on the team, a year younger than all the other kids, and the coach always took us out for a drink and a sandwich after a game, and I was happy as a clam."
Three)
Mother team forced to disband
With the team doing so poorly, and more so because of the club's mismanagement and lack of financial support, the team's director no longer wanted to go around begging every weekend so that the team could have the decency to play on a certain field, and so decided to discontinue the soccer program, but retained the organization of the carnivals**, dances, and indoor soccer, among other things. Then, in December 1991, the sixth year after Figo's departure, the small club had its biggest event since it was founded: hundreds of guests came to celebrate and honor him, but the club couldn't accommodate them, and most of them had to stand on the road outside the door. The club's president, Vitor Oliveira, told the newspaper I played with Figo in 1985 and he was short and skinny, I was playing center back and he was less than my shoulder height," Oliveira told El Globo. Although he was the youngest in the team in terms of age and size, he protected the ball amazingly well and no one could break it down." Arriving at the game, Figo presented the club with three jerseys: the Pastilla uniform he used when he was 12 years old, the Sporting Lisbon uniform and the Portuguese national team uniform. The disappearance of Pastilla changed Figo's fortunes, and soon he was registered in the Sporting Lisbon junior training class, recalled his father, Antonio: "I spoke with the head of the Pastilla club, and they quickly came to an agreement with Sporting Lisbon, who paid 20,000 Portuguese guilders (about more than $100) for Figo."
Joining Sporting Lisbon
Figo and cousin Miguel were both placed in Sporting Lisbon's junior second team, coached by 35-year-old Barnabe, who played for the team from 1961 to 1968 and wrote the book "Let's Play Football. Now Barnabe remembers Fico's first day there vividly: "It was an afternoon and they were leading a kid who was less than 1.4 meters and weighed at most 30 kilograms, and he was extremely shy, but I liked the way he could stick the ball to his feet, and I said to myself: 'This could be a diamond in the rough'. " Barnabe was an extremely patient coach, and at the time he had 53 kids under him, eight of whom were goalkeepers. "We trained four times a week, all from 6:30 p.m. to after 10 p.m. I looked at those kids and realized what sacrifices they made, training for over three hours after class, doing homework, eating dinner, and getting up at 7 a.m. the next day to go to school. But I think it's the first torture they have to go through to be a good pro in the future." But what makes it even harder is having to weed out most of the kids, "Over 2,000 kids come to try out for Sporting Lisbon every year and we have no choice but to screen them one at a time, and every time I go and say, 'Don't bother coming back,' it's very hard on my heart."
Figo's situation was unique in that Barnabe neither eliminated him in the first week nor stated in the second or third week, but also did not formally allow him to join the team. Said Figo: "At that time I left home every day at 5 p.m. and traveled to the stadium by bus****, transferring to the river ferry, and then by bus**** or subway." He could not stand the four-hour journey every day and the money spent on transportation, so he summoned up the courage to find the coach, Barnabe finally decided to let him stay, and from then on, Figo officially joined the famous "Lions", the club to pay for his transportation and other expenses, his parents are also relieved.
Robbery
Figo made his debut in the National League for Sporting Lisbon's junior second team on Sunday, November 3, 1984, at the age of just under 13. It was a big day, and Fico got off to a good start by playing 55 minutes (60 minutes at this level) and scoring a goal. At that time he was deployed on the right, exactly the same position as today. Figo has been the starter ever since, and he still spends his days running between the pitch and his home, and has even been in danger of being mugged. "Once, two big boys came up in a public **** car and squeezed me in the middle, left and right, forcing me to hand over my watch, I resisted and ran to a couple of gentlemen at the front of the car and told them that someone was trying to rob them, as a result, the gentlemen twisted the two men out of the car, and I arrived home safe and sound, but I was still shocked inside." In the 1984/1985 season, their team reached the final of the Lisbon FA Junior League against a powerful Benfica side, which featured a player called Rui? With Costa at the heart of the team, Figo was not called up and the team lost the title 0-1. A week later they faced Spain's Malesme and suffered a 0-15 defeat, but coach Barnabe never lost faith in Figo, and he deserved it, scoring eight goals in 27 games in his first season.
The skinny kid won his first trophy on June 28, 1986, in a special tournament in Lisbon, where Athletic scored 32 goals and conceded none in a triumphant return, with Figo always the team's starting midfielder. Explaining why this team was successful, Barnabé analyzed: "We never rushed with any of them, we aimed to improve a little, so that we could harmonize our development. It's true that Figo was technically good at the time and was a great passer, and I always played him at right back in a 433 formation. I enjoyed watching him keep the ball at his feet for long periods of time, I could see that he loved soccer, and this character showed that he wasn't at all afraid of making a mistake, and I'm sure that Figo never got weak in the legs." Now in his fifties, Barnabé runs a soccer school in Lisbon's scenic Monsanto, where more than 100 children learn the game. He laments, "When I see Figo playing with such confidence and composure no matter what pitch he is on, my heart remembers that more than 10 years ago he was always looking down at his teammates in the team, always seeing them as outstanding players, and he thought more about the team collectively than he did about himself, a virtue that has stayed with him to this day. Also, in 1985 we were not allowed to have a single yellow card all season, let alone a red card, and for me that was more pleasing than winning a championship, because the most basic and important thing for a child is education, and I remember a time when a certain child was so inattentive and didn't listen to the arrangements that I simply substituted him, but didn't send anyone on, and the team played with only 10 men." Barnabé was not only like a soccer thesaurus, but also like a psychiatrist, and at the end of each year he asked the children to write out their feelings about the team, their family problems, the troubles they were having at school, and he kept the letters, including, of course, Fergie's. In addition, he took the kids for annual physical and dental checkups.
Plutonic Barca love affair
New coach Carlos Pereira came in for the 1986/1987 season. Pereira came in for the 1986/1987 season, and he paid the same attention to Figo, who scored four of his team's 12 goals in the ninth round of the league against Canassas on January 4, 1987, the only time in his life that he had ever scored so many times, and then 14 days later he received the first major honor of his life: the manager handed him the captain's armband, and the reporter for El Deportivo, David Sekera, wrote a full-page article on the occasion. Sekera also devoted a full page to the campaign, including a paragraph that read, "Sporting Lisbon had great individuals, including the deft captain Figo." On March 21, 1987, they reached the final of the Lisbon Regional League with a perfect record of 151 goals scored and 2 conceded in 18 matches, knocking out Benfica 4-0 to win the title. Figo kept newspaper clippings and photographs from the time, but strangely enough a Barcelona crest was also attached - could there be some kind of coincidence? The following June 12, they played Porto for the national title, in which Figo received a yellow card, but helped his team win 3-1, winning the Portuguese Primera Division national crown. Throughout the season Figo scored 16 goals in 32 games, catching everyone's eye. He was promoted to the Athletic youth team as a matter of course. To help his physical growth, a specialist has been arranging for him to take vitamins, and the results have been quite miraculous. The Athletic team, which had discovered the stars Futre and Simão? Ferrand, the Athletic's grassroots director, who had discovered the likes of Futre and Simão Sabrosa, recalls: "Just one year had passed and Figo had grown 10 centimeters, going from a skinny kid to a strong teenager with pronounced muscles and an athlete's physique that was nothing short of exceptional.
The 1987/1988 season began in neighboring Spain, which was Figo's first time abroad, and they were invited to play in the International Friendship Cup in Vargas, and although they won the title along the way, Figo suffered a more serious injury for the first time in his life, a sprain of his right ankle, which swelled up horribly, and even fell into the root of the disease. Figo said: "Since then I always feel quite sensitive there, sometimes running too much ankle fatigue, difficult to describe the taste of no words." This season the Athletic Youth Team participated in the National League South Division Group C round-robin tournament, and Figo had a new occupation: taking penalty kicks, where he showed an extremely high scorer's nature and a courageous character. In just eight games between December 1987 and February 1988 he took nine penalties, and throughout the season Fico scored 20 goals in 39 games.Much of Fico's time in the 1988/1989 season was taken up by a call-up to Portuguese youth team manager Kairos, but he still showed excellent form, scoring in each of the first six league games, not being a striker, and ending the season with ***Breaking 17 times and missing half of those games 🙂 .
Four]The 17-year-old professional
Figo really went pro in the 1989/1990 season, which sounds like a lie, since he was only 17 at the time, which would have been high school age! But Figo did do the unthinkable: from a half-grown kid to playing in the National Professional League, not only did he not complain about the troubles of the changing environment and system, but he also gained the recognition of the whole team in his first year for his standard, guts and personality. Against Estoril in the first round of the league, Figo scored his signature goal: starting from the left side of the midfield with the ball, he tripped over all the opponents who came to block the ball, and then fired a right-footed shot into the bottom left corner of the gate at the front of the penalty area. Again, thanks to his selection for the national youth team, he played only 29 league matches, breaking 15 goals. His mother, Maria? Joanna often comes to watch her son play, preferring to come alone rather than accompany her husband. "He's always especially nervous, he gets angry with me every time an opponent kicks or hurts his son, and he gets angry when the referee is unfair or misjudges his son them. I really can't stand him, so even when we come to the pitch together I sit here and he sits opposite."
Selected for national youth team
Figo had no idea that he would be picked up by the Portuguese national team as a newcomer to the ranks of the lesser teams, and he continued to train and play day in and day out, with no inkling of the opportunities that would come with the televised exhibition match. His mother, Maria Joanna, is still thrilled to this day. Joanna is still excited today, she recalled: "I remember very clearly, that day is October 19, 1988, Figo will soon be 16 years old a few days before his birthday, little Figo suddenly rushed into the door with a happy face, told us that the national team has just sent a fax to Sporting Lisbon, asked him to go to a few days later to report to the youth team of the under-16s to participate in the training and match. I hugged him and shed tears, and he was so joyful that all he could do was smile." Father Antonio said, "At that moment I felt like the happiest and proudest father in the world, because he had really come of age." Figo still treasures the original fax, which reads, "Please report to the INTERCON?TINENTAL Hotel in Lisbon at 19:30 on October 22, 1988, and be sure to bring your sneakers, your ID card and a statement signed by the parents agreeing to let their son play abroad.
"It was as if Figo's life was destined to be inseparable from Spain, and his debut in the national team was against Spain, which had Alfonso, Jordi and Flores in its team at the time. Unfortunately, the Portuguese team lost by one goal, but the Spanish media thought it was amazing that a 15 year old teenager already had such an ability to carry the ball and cross the line. Quiroz also saw this, and from then on he almost never let Figo miss a game, and poured his efforts into this group of outstanding teenagers (the team also included Rui? Costa, Joao? The team also included Rui Costa, Joao Pinto, Paulo Sousa, Capuccio, and others who are now in the game. Pinto, Paulo Sousa, Capuccio, and other now-famous stars), explaining and teaching soccer tips, tactics, and philosophies, as he subtly changed the kids' way of thinking.
Quiroz said, "I tell them that being selected for the national youth team doesn't mean the pinnacle or the end of their soccer careers, but only the beginning, and that the most important thing they need during this period is ambition. I instilled in them the need for serious physical and mental preparation before each game, hoping that they would fear no one when they took the field, encouraging them to always put forth their highest level of play, and that the world championship was not at all far away, and that in fact, being a champion begins with having a championship desire and mindset." The Junior Legion, which he commanded, won its first international invitational title in Israel that December, and Fico returned home to his parents and relatives waiting at the airport exit, Fico grinning broadly and holding the trophy aloft.
World Youth Championships
In 1989, already a member of Portugal's national youth team, Figo's only mission was to play in the European Under-16 Championships, where he met many of the players who would go on to become famous, such as France goalkeeper Dutrouel, who would later become teammates at Barcelona. However, with the French team game, Fico released the clearance inadvertently own goal, which is his first and only goal in the national team. Figo said: "I feel terrible, full of guilt, I think I should be responsible for the team's loss. I felt responsible for the team's loss and resolved that I would never make the same mistake again. For this I watched the video over and over again to learn my lesson."
They went on to beat Romania, the Netherlands, Israel, Switzerland and Scotland. A 4-1 victory over a powerful West German team in the final saw them conquer Europe and take the trophy back to Portugal. But it was during this time that Figo's national teammates at Benfica and Porto were quite well subsidized, while Sporting Lisbon were not due to financial difficulties, and for a 16-year-old, he certainly felt particularly lost and felt that his values were not reflected.
Benfica took advantage of the situation and offered him an attractive two-year contract, which he of course signed. So the two most famous big clubs in the Portuguese capital had a big fight, just as Sporting Lisbon elected a new president Sintra, who was adamant about keeping Figo, Benfica complained to the football federation on the grounds of that contract, and before the start of the 1989/1990 season, the federation opened a formal investigation into the case of Figo signing two contracts at the same time, and the final verdict was to ban Figo for 45 days, and the contract with Sporting Lisbon was valid. History has shown that Figo has always been able to pick a fight between the most influential clubs and has signed with more than one club on more than one occasion, something that has been repeated since.
The youth team's great glory stems from the fact that at the eighth World Youth Championships, organized by FIFA from June 14-30, 1991, the Quiroz boss assembled 18 players for the tournament, including the backbone of the current national team, Figo, Rui? Costa, Xavier (the same defender whose handball caused the fatal penalty in the Euro 2000 semi-final that led to Portugal's defeat by France), João? Pinto, Paulo? Sousa, etc. The World Youth Championships were held on Portuguese soil, with 30,000 to 50,000 spectators at each of the Portuguese youth team's matches, and Figo was named Man of the Match in the 3-0 win over Argentina, despite not scoring a goal. La Globo wrote: "What a level! He was the soul of the whole team and drove them to victory."
They went on to beat South Korea, Mexico and Australia to reach their second consecutive World Youth Cup final, after Portugal had already won in 1989. Needless to say, two of the best youth teams ever to meet in a final, both of whom spoke Portuguese, were Portugal and Brazil.On June 30, 1991, Benfica welcomed 12.7 million spectators to its home stadium, and the Brazilian team featured the likes of Elber, Roberto? Carlos, Nunes, etc., in front of the Brazilian players known for their skills, Figo's performance has been better than ever, of course, due to the importance of the competition, the two teams are defense-oriented, did not put much offensive power, 120 minutes to play into 0-0, penalty shootout Elber shot the crossbar led to the Brazilian team lost, Figo finally became the world champion! And the Portuguese media commented after the game: "Figo is a ripe fig, his light enveloped the entire World Youth Championship (Figo in Portuguese means fig). This group of players is also known as the golden generation of Portugal.
World Youth Championship
In 1989, Fico, who had already been selected for Portugal's national youth team, had the sole task of competing in the European Under-16 Championships, a tournament where he met many of the players who would later become famous, such as France's goalkeeper Dutrouël, who would later become teammates at Barcelona. However, with the French team game, Fico released the clearance inadvertently own goal, which is his first and only goal in the national team. Figo said: "I feel terrible, full of guilt, I think I should be responsible for the team's loss. I felt responsible for the team's loss and resolved that I would never make the same mistake again. For this I watched the video over and over again to learn my lesson."
They went on to beat Romania, the Netherlands, Israel, Switzerland and Scotland. A 4-1 victory over a powerful West German team in the final saw them conquer Europe and take the trophy back to Portugal. But it was during this time that Figo's national teammates at Benfica and Porto were quite well subsidized, while Sporting Lisbon were not due to financial difficulties, and for a 16-year-old, he certainly felt particularly lost and felt that his values were not reflected.
Benfica took advantage of the situation and offered him an attractive two-year contract, which he of course signed. So the two most famous big clubs in the Portuguese capital had a big fight, just as Sporting Lisbon elected a new president Sintra, who was adamant about keeping Figo, Benfica complained to the football federation on the grounds of that contract, and before the start of the 1989/1990 season, the federation opened a formal investigation into the case of Figo signing two contracts at the same time, and the final verdict was to ban Figo for 45 days, and the contract with Sporting Lisbon was valid. History has shown that Figo has always been able to pick a fight between the most influential clubs and has signed with more than one club on more than one occasion, something that has been repeated since.
The youth team's great glory stems from the fact that at the eighth World Youth Championships, organized by FIFA from June 14-30, 1991, the Quiroz boss assembled 18 players for the tournament, including the backbone of the current national team, Figo, Rui? Costa, Xavier (the same defender whose handball caused the fatal penalty in the Euro 2000 semi-final that led to Portugal's defeat by France), Joao? Pinto, Paulo? Sousa, etc. The World Youth Championships were held on Portuguese soil, with 30,000 to 50,000 spectators at each of the Portuguese youth team's matches, and Figo was named Man of the Match in the 3-0 win over Argentina, despite not scoring a goal. La Globo wrote: "What a level! He was the soul of the whole team and drove them to victory."
They went on to beat South Korea, Mexico and Australia to reach their second consecutive World Youth Cup final, after Portugal had already won in 1989. Needless to say, two of the best youth teams ever to meet in a final, both of whom spoke Portuguese, were Portugal and Brazil.On June 30, 1991, Benfica welcomed 12.7 million spectators to its home stadium, and the Brazilian team featured the likes of Elber, Roberto? Carlos, Nunes, etc., in front of the Brazilian players known for their skills, Figo's performance has been better than ever, of course, due to the importance of the competition, the two teams are defense-oriented, did not put much offensive power, 120 minutes to play into 0-0, penalty shootout Elber shot the crossbar led to the Brazilian team lost, Figo finally became the world champion! And the Portuguese media commented after the game: "Figo is a ripe fig, his light enveloped the entire World Youth Championship (Figo in Portuguese means fig). This group of players is also known as Portugal's golden generation.
The forger of the golden generation
If every coach in Figo's career is quite important, then among them play a central, guiding role, the most influential is Carlos? Quiroz (now Real Madrid's manager). Without Quiroz, Figo would never have reached his current level of soccer and international experience.
Despite starting out at the humble club Pastillas, when Figo joined Sporting Lisbon's first team at the age of 18, he already had international experience that his peers couldn't have dreamed of: 41 matches for Portugal's youth team, and selections for the Under-20s and the Under-21s, with 12 and 7 matches each, all arranged by Coach Queiroz. Arrangement. He is Figo's real "protector" and "godfather", personally took Figo through the 15 to 22 years of age of the soaring era.
Quiroz was born on March 1, 1953 in Mozambique, his parents are Portuguese, when Mozambique is a Portuguese overseas colony, he was 14 years old when he joined the Mozambique government team Railways, 21 years old when the people of Mozambique revolted to start the war of independence, he had to take a few changes of clothes and fled back to Portugal, he had no choice but to use the scholarships to study five years of college, and read Portugal's first master's degree in football. The young man was so obsessed with soccer that he didn't even know how many discos there were near the university, but preferred to pay to fly to Andorra just to watch a game under the direction of Argentinian manager Benoit Menotti. He was a teacher for a while, so they later called him "Professor Quiroz."
Since 1987 he has been in charge of setting up all the youth teams in Portugal, and in order to recruit talent he came up with the idea of a nationwide youth soccer skills competition on television, a TV program called SKILLS. We personally visited all the famous soccer schools in the country to pick the good ones," recalls Queiroz. I remember very clearly, as soon as I saw Figo's performance, I fell in love with him, he was naturally designated as one of the finalists, and when they were officially on TV, all the viewers in the country could see them, this group of kids from 13 to 16 years old were the best among their peers, and on that day, they performed bobbling, catching, passing, and controlling without letting the ball fall to the ground, and I was watching their young bodies but dexterous and full of sense of touch and skill, and I was really I was really touched and happy. From then on, I made up my mind to build a youth team with a new style of play. I did my best to gather all the children with soccer talent under the management of the federation, and carried out a layer by layer selection, so I began to standardize the youth soccer league according to the regional division, and established a systematic project of tracking and investigating the young players older than 13 years old by the local and national soccer federations, no matter at that time or now, I firmly believe that they are the most competitive and talented players in the world, and the world champion will be in the world sooner or later. and that sooner or later the world champion will be among them."
[V]First professional contract
After two more seasons in the Athletic Lisbon youth ranks, Figo was selected by the first team coaching staff, then headed by Raul Aguas. Aguas. April 1, 1990