For half the summer, the whole world had been watching the European Championship.
As soon as the tournament ended, the major European giants that had been holding back for so long finally made their moves.
Buy him! Buy him! Buy him!
But no one expected that the most important deal of the summer would come from Portugal.
On July 24, Real Madrid officially announced that they had taken their captain, Luis Figo, away from Barcelona for a transfer fee of €60 million.
This deal shocked all of Europe.
It could basically be understood as Messi joining Real Madrid and Ronaldo joining Barcelona.
Absolutely outrageous.
It was filled with too many coincidences and calculations.
Figo had played for Barcelona for five years. His personal form had reached its peak this year, and he wanted a higher salary.
However, even Ronaldo, who had burst onto the scene, couldn't secure a higher salary at Barcelona and had to leave Inter Milan.
Naturally, Figo couldn't get a satisfactory offer either.
At that time, both Barcelona and Real Madrid were undergoing internal changes, so Figo's agent contacted Real Madrid.
Florentino Pérez, who had announced his candidacy for the presidency of Real Madrid, boldly claimed that he would bring Barcelona's top stars to Madrid. This promise won over the Madridistas, and he eventually won the election.
Florentino had a secret agreement with Figo: if he was elected president, Figo would join Real Madrid. Otherwise, Figo would have to pay Florentino a massive penalty—reportedly €30 million.
But if Florentino failed to win, he would have to compensate Figo heavily as well.
As for the exact details, all parties have given mixed confirmations and denials—but something like this definitely existed.
In the end, Figo had no choice but to join Real Madrid to avoid paying that enormous sum.
This incident dealt a huge blow to Barcelona, severely damaging the club's brand value and turning them into a laughingstock in football.
If it weren't for the rise of Barcelona's Dream Team II and III in later years—with Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Deco, MSN, Xavi, Iniesta, and Busquets stepping up one after another—it's entirely possible Barcelona could have collapsed.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid officially entered the Galácticos era.
Besides Figo, there were plenty of other exciting transfers that summer.
Lazio signed Argentine striker Hernán Crespo from Parma for €56.8 million.
Barcelona used €40 million from Figo's sale to bring in the "Flying Dutchman" Marc Overmars from Arsenal—but that deal would later prove to be a failure.
Roma signed their "God of War" Gabriel Batistuta from Fiorentina for €36.2 million, giving him the world's highest football salary at $7.15 million per year.
This was one of the most immediately successful deals—both Roma and Batistuta won the Serie A title that season.
Paris Saint-Germain signed the French "alien" Nicolas Anelka from Real Madrid for €34.5 million.
Leeds United spent €26 million to sign Rio Ferdinand from West Ham United ahead of Manchester United—this was the most famous "Rio" before Messi even existed!
Real Madrid spent €25 million to sign defensive midfielder Flávio Conceição from newly crowned La Liga champions Deportivo La Coruña—but this would later become one of Florentino's ten worst signings.
Honestly, they would've been better off buying Sérgio Conceição—the Portuguese Golden Generation winger who had just scored a hat-trick and won the European Championship Bronze Boot.
Parma signed Euro Golden Boot winner Savo Milošević from Zaragoza for €25 million.
Juventus spent €23.2 million to sign David Trezeguet from Monaco—the man who scored the golden goal to win France the European Championship. Looking back, this would prove to be one of the best-value deals of the year.
But at the time, Juventus were still hesitant.
After all, just a year earlier, they had signed his Monaco teammate Thierry Henry, only for him to flop and be sold to Arsenal.
They were worried Trezeguet might turn out the same way.
The tenth biggest deal of the summer saw Lazio spend €23 million to sign Claudio López from Champions League runners-up Valencia.
These blockbuster transfers made European football even more dynamic.
At the same time, they also influenced transfers across other leagues.
For example—Ricardo Quaresma of Sporting Lisbon.
Thanks to Barcelona signing Figo, Sporting Lisbon had established a cooperative relationship with Barcelona.
The high-priced transfer of Simão Sabrosa was part of that pipeline.
Even though Simão didn't perform particularly well in his first season at Barcelona, the club was still eager to bring in the "next Figo" from Sporting Lisbon… Quaresma.
Initially, Barcelona had raised their offer from €4 million to €8 million, and it seemed like €10 million would eventually seal the deal.
But after the Figo transfer controversy exploded, Barcelona fans collectively rejected anything related to Portugal.
The club's management immediately shut down all negotiations with Sporting Lisbon.
Quaresma was forced to stay.
Of course, Sporting Lisbon continued trying to sell him to Premier League and Serie A clubs—but the price would never reach Barcelona's level.
Just when everyone was waiting for Quaresma's transfer saga to continue, a massive change hit Sporting Lisbon's top management.
The former club president was imprisoned for corruption.
Meanwhile, Trigueira—the powerful businessman who had been jailed for tax issues a year earlier—announced his candidacy for club president and promised to invest at least €10 million in transfers to rebuild Sporting Lisbon.
He declared that he would transform Sporting Lisbon from a "black shop" into a true European giant.
A club comparable to Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga—consistently competitive in the Champions League.
With no better candidates, he was quickly elected president.
Soon after, the club announced the termination of Marco Materazzi's contract and invited back the miracle coach Trigueira.
Under Materazzi, Sporting Lisbon had stagnated—finishing fourth last season and fourth again this season.
Trigueira, on the other hand, was a key figure in the club's youth system and had just led Moreirense to a domestic double.
Naturally, Sporting Lisbon fans welcomed his return with open arms.
You could even say they had been waiting for this moment for a long time.
The only controversy left was this—
Was Maxa actually the better choice?
Should Trigueira instead serve as Maxa's assistant coach?
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