Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has revealed how he convinced then Barcelona captain Figo to swap the Camp Nou for the Bernabeu in 2000.
The transfer is still talked about to these days around the world as the most controversial transfer there has ever been.
The transfer also did not help the rivalry between Los Blancos and Barcelona, in fact it made it even tenser and aggressive in the months after.
Figo rocked Barcelona after he requested the move to Real Madrid that would begin the era of ‘galactico’s’ at the Bernabeu, one of the clubs most successful sides.
The transfer eventually reached a huge £37.4m deal, which is an incredible amount when you consider that even 17 years later that is a big money move.
Barcelona fans were filled with rage, Figo had betrayed them and Perez had pulled off one of the biggest transfers in footballing history.
Now, Perez has sat down and talked about how he actually got the deal done.
“It was like ripping out the hearts of our countrymen,” he explained.
“Nobody had spent 60 million euros in 2000. I convinced him but it was not easy, he was the captain of Barcelona!”
“I told him that we wanted to build this project around him,” he added.
“Then came [Zinedine] Zidane, Ronaldo, [David] Beckham, and we created the phenomenon of the Galacticos.”