I was randomly thinking about this Riquelme guy, and how he said he was gonna sign Haaland if he wins😭 He wanted to use Florentino Perez’ playbook on him😂😂 In year 2000, Perez told the Real Madrid socios to vote for him for president, that if he wins, he’ll sign Luis Figo😂 You know the crazy part? The sitting president had won two champions league in 3 years. In fact, they just won a champions league, he was successful. You wonder how Perez was going to unseat him 😂 Figo was the best player in the world, in fact, he won BDOR later that year, and he was a Barcelona player. Perez had to look for something to say to convince people to vote him and not vote a successful president. Then he came up with a masterplan, he said if he wins the election, he’ll sign Figo. In fact, he said the best players ought to be playing for Real Madrid and he’ll bring them here, that was the start of the Galacticos era (Zidane, Delima, Beckham, etc joined after Figo…up till Cristiano, Kaka, Mbappe…till date, Perez has kept that word). Signing Figo was an impossible feat. Figo was a Barcelona player, it’s impossible…and Figo had a release clause of 60m. No player has ever been signed for that amount. Record sale was Christian Vieri for £30 to Inter Milan. Figo loved Barcelona, he was a god there, how will Perez convince him to sign? No top Barcelona player should move to Real Madrid. If you want to understand better, think of Messi in his prime going to Real Madrid, exactly!!! First thing Perez did was call Paulo Futre who was a friend to Figo. He told him the plan, Futre then got in touch with Figo’s agent, Jose Veiga. FP promised them some mad money, he said if they can make the deal happen, Futre will get 1.5m euros and Veiga will get 3m euros, which they eventually both got. Futre was also the reason Veiga got up to that amount, because he lied to Perez that Veiga wanted more money as agent commission😅, he didn’t only lie to Perez, he lied to Figo’s agent and deceived him to sign a pre-contract. Veiga couldn’t resist that money, Figo will also be paid x4 of the wages he was earning at Barcelona. Veiga was desperate for Figo to join. Figo did not sign any pre-contract, it was his agent, Veiga…Veiga claimed he got a go ahead from Figo to sign it, but Figo denied it. This is where it gets crazy, the pre-contract agreement that Veiga signed on behalf of Figo had a clause. Gosh Perez is crazy. Perez included a clause that if he wins the presidency, and Figo doesn’t come to Madrid, Figo/Veiga will pay him 30m euros😂😂😂, and Veiga signed it. When Veiga told Figo about Madrid’s interest, Figo told him to meet Barcelona’s hierarchy to tell them about the fact that a club (no mention of Real Madrid) was willing to pay off his release clause, but he doesn’t want to leave Barcelona, so they should improve his contract. Gaspert was Vice President of Barcelona then, and was contesting for presidency too. He called whatever Veiga told him a bluff, no one could pay that release clause, they also just improved Figo’s contract a year before, so he felt Figo was greedy. Anyways, the media started the rumour, it’s one of the craziest saga in football history. Figo was the biggest player in the world, everywhere went crazy. They would capture Figo’s agent in meetings with Perez, they would monitor Figo everywhere. Real Madrid players like Roberto Carlos and Hierro said they never believed it was going to happen. Figo felt under-appreciated because the hierarchy weren’t taking him seriously, but he still didn’t want to leave. Perez had now won the election. Figo said he’s not leaving Barcelona. Perez then asked Veiga to pay the 30m😂 Veiga almost ran mad, where would he get that money? Figo didn’t care, he wasn’t the one that signed the pre-contract. Veiga had to beg Figo to please go to Madrid, or if he wasn’t gonna go, can he just have a meeting with Perez to just talk things out. Figo decided to meet with Perez, who convinced👇🏽