Deak’s Football Blog

A lot of big football stories this weekend — such as Man Utd and Inter winning yet more titles — but, for me, the biggest story is the end of a great footballing era: the retirement of Luis Figo.

At 37 years of age, the 2001 Fifa World Player of the Year decided to hang up his boots after failing to have more than a bit-part role in Inter winning their 17th Serie A title.

Figo was one of the first of Real Madrid’s “galacticos” signings, costing a then world record £37m when he was signed from Barcelona in August 2000. He went on to make 241 appearances for Los Merengues, scoring 55 goals. He also played 127 times for Portugal.

His career cannot be summed up in mere statistics, though; it doesn’t do justice to his commanding presence on the field and his game-turning technique. Figo was a master freekick taker — so good, in fact, that he would regularly argue with Beckham at Real Madrid over who would take set pieces. The greatest aspect of Figo’s game was his vision: he posessed a great footballing mind, an ability to spot openings and deliver precision passes over almost any distance.

Talk of Figo coming out of retirement to play in America may — or may not — be wide of the mark, with the player saying:

“I will not play again at the highest level and I will most likely not accept any offer. Only if something special emerges and it is from outside of Europe. But it is not likely.”

To me that reads as something like, let’s see how big of a cheque you can write me.

Just what is it with Flamengo trying to sign salad dodgers? Having missed out on signing one overweight striker (Ronaldo infuriated the Mengão by signing for Corinthians), Flamengo yesterday snapped up barrel-shaped goal-beast Adriano.

The Brazilian had refused to return to Inter after turning out for the Seleção in their recent World Cup Qualifiers, instead opting to stay in Brazil and eat himself senseless after his girlfriend dumped him.

By all accounts, Adriano — despite having had his contract terminated by former club Inter — didn’t come cheap. President Márcio Braga had been pursuing various commercial possibilities to secure a sponsor to fund Adriano’s enormous wages, and the rumours that surfaced at the weekend that this had been successful were confirmed yesterday afternoon. As part of the deal Adriano will be expected to carry out various “publicity campaigns”.

Given the success of Ronaldo’s return to Brazil (8 goals in 9 games), the expectations of the Flamengo supporters will no doubt be high. If Adriano can get his head together and rediscover his love for the game, his goal scoring record practically guarantees a giant haul of goals.