I'm from Glasgow and can remember the massive furore when the Scotland international striker and ex-Celtic player Maurice Johnston had seemingly agreed to return to Celtic Park after a spell playing for Nantes in France. A lifelong Celtic fan and a Roman Catholic, he was actually pictured embracing the then Celtic manager Billy McNeill, while wearing a Celtic shirt. It seemed to be the proverbial "done deal".
Then, the earthquake broke as Johnston reneged on his promise and instead signed with Celtic's great Glasgow rivals, Rangers, then under hard-bitten manager Graeme Souness, who thus completed a stunning coup and also broke the Ibrox team's historic tradition of signing only Protestant players. The fall-out from both sides was massive, the Celtic fans believing that Johnston had betrayed them while many of the traditional Rangers fans were equally furious at Souness for bringing a Roman Catholic into the side for the first time.
I mention all this because for me it was the most sensational transfer story in my memory and in many ways it still is. In fact I'd say it's worth a Netflix documentary film too. That said, in global terms the fuss over the Johnston transfer seems to pale into insignificance when compared to when Luis Figo the Portuguese World Cup star, switched his allegiance from Barcelona to Real Madrid in the year 2000.
Over the course of this documentary feature, the main participants in the saga look back, although naturally in a revisionist way, at how events unfolded and subsequently played out, although it has to be said, their stories do not match up against each other. Even today, it seems the truth remains concealed.
The film puts the signing in its political context of two coincidental power struggles going on for the club presidencies of both Madrid and Barca. Figo had been at Barcelona for five successful years, seemingly fully integrated into the Catalonian culture. He's famously caught on camera celebrating a victory, with his hair dyed blue and red and openly mocking Madrid, his team's main rival. The fans at the club adore him and he seems completely settled, to the extent that he has married, had a child and bought a house there. I think it's important to say though that Figo is obviously of Portuguese nationality and so had no underlying hometown feelings to contend with.
Anyway, the rival candidate for the Madrid presidency is an underdog but his campaign against the successful incumbent, who had just presided over two Champions League victories in a row, catches fire when he announces that he will sign Figo for Madrid.
This boast greatly helps him to win the presidency and so begins the frenzied tug-of-war for the player between the two clubs, the matter sparking much media interest, especially in both competing cities, but also in the rest of Spain and indeed the wider sporting world for that matter.
Finally, of course, we know that he did indeed sign for Real, to the delight of the Madrid fans but more particularly to the incandescent fury of the betrayed Barca fans.
I listened carefully to the statements made by Figo, his agent and the two club presidents at the time. At one stage, Figo says that he wanted more recognition for his contribution to the Barcelona team which of course can only mean more money, which the new Barca president was not prepared to pay. We are told that he was under contract and had had pay rises in previous years. But it seems that where there's an agent there's a way and sure enough his very slippery agent and another go-between, the player's predecessor as the star international player for Portugal, Paulo Futre, got the deal done and were obviously very well rewarded financially for their part in the negotiations so I can only imagine what the player himself received at the time.
The claim is made, with some justification, that this was the deal which changed the way football transfers would be done from then on. While I do believe some agents do represent their clients well, I'm genuinely of the opinion that the game as a whole was and would be a lot better off without them.
So I probably side with the Barcelona fans in this affair, believing myself that Figo simply followed the money regardless of the consequences. He says it was worth it and certainly he was successful at Madrid for five subsequent years. Nevertheless as we saw at his first match back at Barcelona playing for Madrid, he was never going to be forgiven by his old fans, with some deeply offensive chants and banners against him and his family at the game while every time the player went to take a corner, he was pelted with rubbish from the terraces.
As an old-school football follower, I'm of the conviction that there's far too much money sloshing around in the sport resulting in sky-high wages for players as well as sky-high commission-cuts for their agents.
Figo himself obviously wants to put the record straight here, over 20 years later, but I remain unconvinced, as it seems to me that he's just one of many people in this compelling documentary purely in it for the money, but reluctant to admit it. Just remember that the next time the new football hero at your own team kisses their club badge to celebrate scoring a goal...
Then, the earthquake broke as Johnston reneged on his promise and instead signed with Celtic's great Glasgow rivals, Rangers, then under hard-bitten manager Graeme Souness, who thus completed a stunning coup and also broke the Ibrox team's historic tradition of signing only Protestant players. The fall-out from both sides was massive, the Celtic fans believing that Johnston had betrayed them while many of the traditional Rangers fans were equally furious at Souness for bringing a Roman Catholic into the side for the first time.
I mention all this because for me it was the most sensational transfer story in my memory and in many ways it still is. In fact I'd say it's worth a Netflix documentary film too. That said, in global terms the fuss over the Johnston transfer seems to pale into insignificance when compared to when Luis Figo the Portuguese World Cup star, switched his allegiance from Barcelona to Real Madrid in the year 2000.
Over the course of this documentary feature, the main participants in the saga look back, although naturally in a revisionist way, at how events unfolded and subsequently played out, although it has to be said, their stories do not match up against each other. Even today, it seems the truth remains concealed.
The film puts the signing in its political context of two coincidental power struggles going on for the club presidencies of both Madrid and Barca. Figo had been at Barcelona for five successful years, seemingly fully integrated into the Catalonian culture. He's famously caught on camera celebrating a victory, with his hair dyed blue and red and openly mocking Madrid, his team's main rival. The fans at the club adore him and he seems completely settled, to the extent that he has married, had a child and bought a house there. I think it's important to say though that Figo is obviously of Portuguese nationality and so had no underlying hometown feelings to contend with.
Anyway, the rival candidate for the Madrid presidency is an underdog but his campaign against the successful incumbent, who had just presided over two Champions League victories in a row, catches fire when he announces that he will sign Figo for Madrid.
This boast greatly helps him to win the presidency and so begins the frenzied tug-of-war for the player between the two clubs, the matter sparking much media interest, especially in both competing cities, but also in the rest of Spain and indeed the wider sporting world for that matter.
Finally, of course, we know that he did indeed sign for Real, to the delight of the Madrid fans but more particularly to the incandescent fury of the betrayed Barca fans.
I listened carefully to the statements made by Figo, his agent and the two club presidents at the time. At one stage, Figo says that he wanted more recognition for his contribution to the Barcelona team which of course can only mean more money, which the new Barca president was not prepared to pay. We are told that he was under contract and had had pay rises in previous years. But it seems that where there's an agent there's a way and sure enough his very slippery agent and another go-between, the player's predecessor as the star international player for Portugal, Paulo Futre, got the deal done and were obviously very well rewarded financially for their part in the negotiations so I can only imagine what the player himself received at the time.
The claim is made, with some justification, that this was the deal which changed the way football transfers would be done from then on. While I do believe some agents do represent their clients well, I'm genuinely of the opinion that the game as a whole was and would be a lot better off without them.
So I probably side with the Barcelona fans in this affair, believing myself that Figo simply followed the money regardless of the consequences. He says it was worth it and certainly he was successful at Madrid for five subsequent years. Nevertheless as we saw at his first match back at Barcelona playing for Madrid, he was never going to be forgiven by his old fans, with some deeply offensive chants and banners against him and his family at the game while every time the player went to take a corner, he was pelted with rubbish from the terraces.
As an old-school football follower, I'm of the conviction that there's far too much money sloshing around in the sport resulting in sky-high wages for players as well as sky-high commission-cuts for their agents.
Figo himself obviously wants to put the record straight here, over 20 years later, but I remain unconvinced, as it seems to me that he's just one of many people in this compelling documentary purely in it for the money, but reluctant to admit it. Just remember that the next time the new football hero at your own team kisses their club badge to celebrate scoring a goal...
