Figo’s Reluctant Admiration for Barcelona’s Strong Start
Luis Figo, the man who crossed the Clasico divide and never stopped hearing about it, is watching this Barcelona with something close to admiration.
Hansi Flick’s side have ripped out of the blocks in LaLiga: 21 points from 21, 31 goals scored, top of the table and already six clear of Real Madrid. That kind of start usually makes the Bernabeu nervous. This time, it has also made a Madrid legend nod in approval.
Figo’s reluctant admiration
Speaking to Radio MARCA, Figo – now a UEFA adviser but forever linked to Real Madrid – did not bother to dress it up.
“They have started very strong. They're winning, they're playing very well, they're scoring goals,” he said, summing up a Barcelona that has combined ruthlessness with fluency in front of goal.
From a former Madrid icon, those words carry a particular weight. The numbers back him up: Flick has injected speed, aggression and a cutting edge that has turned early-season fixtures into one-way traffic.
Yet Figo refused to get carried away. The table in September or October has fooled too many people before.
“You have to see how the season goes, which is very long,” he warned, quickly widening the lens to the bigger picture. For him, this version of Barcelona is not just a Catalan story. “For Spanish football, logically, it is good.”
A dominant, vibrant Barça, a wounded but dangerous Madrid, a title race with real jeopardy – for the neutral, it is exactly what LaLiga has been crying out for.
Madrid, never out of the fight
Six points is a cushion, not a coronation. Figo knows that better than most. He has lived seasons that turned on one bad week.
“Surely Madrid will compete until the end. This is a competition that has to be regular until May. There will be highs and lows during the season,” he insisted, sounding more like a man reciting hard-earned truths than offering clichés.
The message was clear: the first seven games do not decide a title. How a team survives the inevitable dip often does.
“When there are lows you have to have the maturity and also the quality to overcome them and move on,” he added.
That line could apply to both clubs. Barcelona, flying now, will be judged when the goals dry up or injuries bite. Madrid, already chasing, must prove they still have the resilience that defined their recent Champions League reigns.
Ballon d’Or politics and the Mbappé factor
The conversation then moved from the league table to the Ballon d’Or, where the debate is just as fierce and the margins just as small.
Voting closes on Monday. Names are everywhere. Opinions even more so. Figo, though, stayed firmly on the fence.
“Who has the power to decide is the one who votes. You have to wait to see what happens. I don't vote, so I don't have that problem in my head,” he said, refusing to back any particular candidate.
He did, however, make space for one familiar superstar.
“He is always at a very high level. He's one of the best in the world, to score goals,” Figo said of Kylian Mbappe, a player whose shadow still looms over every major award and every major transfer window.
Mbappe’s name remains a reference point in any discussion about the game’s elite. Yet this year’s narrative is not his alone.
Despite Figo’s praise, the early noise around the award has a different flavour. Lamine Yamal, Barcelona’s teenage phenomenon, is driving trends and headlines, with club teammate Rodri and Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane also firmly in the conversation.
A Madrid icon admiring Barcelona’s football. A Barça prodigy muscling into a race long dominated by established stars. A title chase with a six-point gap that feels anything but settled.
If this is how the season starts, what will it look like when the pressure really hits in May?
