Florentino Pérez promised Real Madrid Luís Figo, and then he delivered him

In May 2000 Real Madrid were champions of Europe. On 24 May at the Stade de France they beat Valencia 3–0, with goals from Fernando Morientes, Steve McManaman and Raúl, in the first European Cup final between two clubs from the same country. It was the club's eighth European Cup and their second in three seasons under the president, Lorenzo Sanz. It was also the first trophy of Vicente del Bosque's managerial career; he had replaced John Toshack as coach the previous November. In La Liga they had finished fifth.

Sanz had called an early presidential election for 2000. His opponent was Florentino Pérez, a civil engineer who had built the construction group ACS and a former politician whose party had failed to win a seat in 1986. Pérez had lost the 1995 Real Madrid election to Ramón Mendoza by fewer than 700 votes. This time he campaigned on the club's finances, pointing to its debts and to what he called mismanagement by previous boards. He also had a player.

The promise

Pérez asked Real Madrid's members which player they most wanted. They chose Luís Figo. Figo had joined Barcelona from Sporting in 1995, and in five seasons there he won two league titles and the Cup Winners' Cup. He scored the fifth goal at Compostela on the day Ronaldo ran through a team. In the summer of 2000 he was 27.

During Euro 2000 Pérez announced that he would sign him. "If I become president of Real Madrid, Luís Figo will be a Real Madrid player," he said, and if it did not happen he would pay the members' fees for a season (some accounts say their season tickets). "The pledge he made to Real Madrid's fans was intoxicating," said Diego Torres of El País.

There was a document behind the promise. Through Paulo Futre, the former Atlético Madrid player, Pérez reached Figo's agent, José Veiga, and agreed a conditional deal. If Pérez won and Figo refused to move, Figo would owe a heavy penalty. If Pérez lost, Figo would keep a payment. The amounts are reported differently from source to source.

Figo denied it. "I'm not so mad as to do a thing like that," he told Diario Sport in early July. Of Barcelona's shirt he said: "This is and will be my shirt." Josep María Minguella, who helped broker the deal, explained later: "He couldn't acknowledge the agreement because it was a conditional contract." Sanz did not take the story seriously. Pérez, he said, would probably announce the signing of Claudia Schiffer next.

Eight days in July

The members voted on 16 July 2000. Pérez won 16,469 votes to Sanz's 13,302.

Figo's buy-out clause stood at 10 billion pesetas, and Pérez deposited that sum with the Spanish football authorities. It was a world-record fee. The new man at Barcelona, Joan Gaspart, elected president on 23 July by 25,181 votes to Lluís Bassat's 19,791, would not pay Figo's penalty to keep him. On 24 July Figo was presented at the Santiago Bernabéu, alongside Alfredo Di Stéfano and, as FourFourTwo put it, "barely smiling".

His Barcelona team-mates had not seen it coming. "He surprised us all," said the goalkeeper Francesc Arnau. "There had been a lot of silence." Jari Litmanen, a team-mate in 1999–2000, said: "In the dressing room, he was a leader, loved and trusted as a player and a person." And: "We were all disappointed, but the real question was why he left. It's just not normal for a Barcelona player to join Real Madrid."

Barcelona spent the money on Marc Overmars, Emmanuel Petit and Gerard, among others. Madrid also brought in Claude Makélélé from Celta Vigo.

The Camp Nou

Madrid went to the Camp Nou on 21 October 2000. Armed guards met Figo at the airport. Police cleared a passage along the team bus's route, and fans threw bottles, stones and glass at the coach. "I sat next to him on the plane," said McManaman, "but no way was I going to sit next to him on the bus."

Before the game Figo said: "At times I feel I'm treated like a murderer. I don't think I'm Judas or a traitor." Del Bosque said: "He'll deal with it. He's a great professional."

"45 minutes before the game started, the stadium was already packed," said Luis Enrique, "and we couldn't even hear each other during the warm-up." Figo was whistled from the moment he came out to warm up. The banners said "Traidor" and "Judas", and one read "Figo, tenemos 10.000 millones de razones para odiarte": Figo, we have 10,000 million reasons to hate you. Fake 10,000-peseta notes carrying his face and the word "pesetero", money-grabber, went round the ground. Coins, bottles, lighters and mobile phones were thrown, and the referee, Alfonso Pérez Burrull, picked a phone off the pitch.

Carles Puyol marked him. Figo was booked in the 66th minute. Luis Enrique scored in the first half and Simão in the second, and Barcelona won 2–0.

"The game with the strongest atmosphere I experienced as a player at Camp Nou was the day Figo returned," Luis Enrique said later, "and I played there for 8 years." Di Stéfano said: "I have never seen anything like it." Figo said: "Physically and mentally, it is impossible to ignore 75,000 people shouting against you. I was worried that some madman might lose his head."

In Barcelona, La Vanguardia's deputy editor, Alfredo Abián, wrote an editorial under the title "Que Figo nos perdone": Figo, forgive us.

Paying for it

In December 2000 Figo won the Ballon d'Or, largely for what he had done at Barcelona. He had 197 points. Second, with 181, was Zinedine Zidane of Juventus.

The club was still in debt. Pérez's answer was the land under Real Madrid's training ground, the Ciudad Deportiva on the Castellana. In 2000 he secured the agreement of the mayor of Madrid, José María Álvarez del Manzano, and the president of the Madrid region, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, to rezone the site from sporting use to building land. When it went to a vote in the Madrid parliament, the Partido Popular backed it and the Socialists opposed it. In May 2001 the three men signed the deal. The site would take four office towers and a 20,000-seat sports pavilion, and Real Madrid had the rights to one and a half of the towers. The price was reported differently at the time and has been since, but the proceeds cleared the club's debts.

"This is very important for Real Madrid because we have removed a terrible burden," Pérez said. "Real Madrid has not only to be a sporting leader, it must also be a financial leader."

Unnamed clubs asked the European Union to look into the deal. It found no wrongdoing and no evidence of state subsidy. The towers became the Cuatro Torres Business Area.

Champions

Del Bosque's side did not defend the European Cup: Bayern Munich knocked them out in the semi-final. The league was different. On 26 May 2001 they beat Alavés 5–0 at the Bernabéu to win the title with two games to spare. Raúl scored twice, and Guti, Fernando Hierro and Iván Helguera got the others.

It was Real Madrid's 28th league title. They finished with 80 points, seven clear of Deportivo. Raúl was the league's top scorer with 24 goals, and Figo scored 14 in all competitions. Barcelona finished fourth.

The first of Pérez's great signings had come from Barcelona. On 9 July 2001 the man who had finished behind Figo in the Ballon d'Or came from Juventus for another world-record fee and signed a four-year contract. "It is a great honour to come here to this great club," said Zinedine Zidane.