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| | Week 30 Spotlight: Portuguese Man of Awe | Monday 20 March, 2006 |
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 Player of the Week: Figo (Inter)
Inter have made some shocking and quite laughable transfer mistakes in the past, but their summer capture of Luis Figo wasn’t one of them. Despite the scepticism which surrounded the move both before and after he penned his Nerazzurri contract, the Portuguese international outlined against Lazio that there really is no substitute for class.
Figo again shone at the San Siro as he continued his fine form for the Milan giants. His movement, vision and crossing ability is still of the highest calibre and his fine goal against Angelo Peruzzi simply underlined why boss Roberto Mancini was instantly won over by his ability – and not put off by his age.
Now 33, you can safely say that Figo’s career is approaching its last lap yet he’s demonstrated that he wants to go out in style and repay the faith of owner Massimo Moratti, a man who convinced the former Sporting Lisbon ace to join his outfit in the summer over a plate of seafood.
“I’ve always given my best for Inter this season,” said the ex-Real Madrid sensation following the Biancocelesti win. “I think it was only normal for people to consider me as old and past it when I arrived, especially after leaving a club such as Real. But I came here to continue my career in the best possible manner.”
Figo now has five Serie A goals to his name but the Italian game very nearly didn’t get to see his undoubted ability at all. He was all set to move to the top-flight in the mid-1990s, just before he was to emerge as the new star of the European game with Barcelona. Juventus announced that he’d signed a pre-contract agreement with them, only for a puzzled Parma to produce a similar document. The messy affair subsequently led to a Nou Camp switch.
Serie A may have lost out on Figo at the very peak of his career, yet he’s trying to make up for lost time and has proved to be a massive hit with the fans – on and off the pitch. His verbal outburst against Juventus director general Luciano Moggi may have resulted in a misconduct charge, but it won the admiration of Nerazzurri supporters, some of whom bombarded the club’s website with suggestions that he be made the new club captain.
That’s unlikely to happen but there is a possibility that Figo will bring his illustrious career to an end with Inter, even if his present deal is set to expire in June 2007. “We haven’t spoken about a contract extension,” revealed Figo. “We haven’t even reached April yet and I still have over a year left to go.
“I really don’t think that this is the right time to be talking about such things,” he added. “We are still in two Cup competitions and have the League campaign to finish. This is all that matters at this present time for Inter.”
No matter how the season finishes for Inter in terms of silverware, they’ve already won the gamble of signing Figo – a player labelled by some as ‘finished’ just a year ago. Now we’ll all just have to wait and see whether Moratti is ready for an additional punt and ask Real Madrid for another ‘past hero’ this summer in the larger form of Ronaldo. Knowing Inter and Moratti, we wouldn’t bet against it… |
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Goal of the Week: Tavano (Empoli)
Although Massimo Mutarelli’s wonder blast from distance in Palermo’s 2-0 win over Sampdoria was a marvelous strike, Francesco Tavano is handed the Goal of the Week honour. Ciccio-gol scored a beauty against Reggina with a left-footed shot, on the turn from a tight-angle, that flew past Ivan Pelizzoli. That strike was enough to drag his Tuscan outfit out of the bottom three. |
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Number of the Week: 2
Alvaro Recoba’s brace for Inter confirmed how kind the month of March is to El Chino. The Uruguayan has scored 16 of his total 63 Serie A goals during the third month of the year – that’s an amazing 25 per cent! |
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| Words: Antonio Labbate |
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Past Spotlights
A unique review of each round of Serie A 2005-06, including Player of the Week, Goal of the Week and Number of the Week. More
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