5 Greatest Portuguese footballers of all time

#3. Luis Figo:

Luis Figo

The greatest player to have emerged from the Golden generation of Portuguese football, Luis Figo is also one of the few players who has performed equally well for both the Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid. Figo also started his career with Sporting and joined Barca in 1995.

He became a part of the Barca team which was going through a rebuilding phase and combined with the likes of Rivaldo and Jari Litmanen to make Barca a formidable team. Figo primarily played as the right-winger, and dazzled the world with his quick dribbling and probing runs through the right flank. He could also deliver good crosses and had great vision too.

Figo scored 45 goals for Barca in 248 matches, and also won 2 La Liga titles with them. He also won the Ballon d’Or in 2000. However, his much-disputed transfer to arch-rivals Real Madrid was very acrimonious, and he had to face a hostile reception from the Barca fans when Real visited the Camp Nou in the 2000-01 season. However, he won 2 La Liga titles and 1 UEFA Champions League title with Real in his 5 seasons with them.

Figo was part of one of the greatest club teams ever assembled in the history of football, which also consisted of the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Raul, Ronaldo, Fernando Hierro and Claude Makelele. He scored 56 goals from 245 matches for Real Madrid.

He joined Inter from Real in 2005 and played there till 2009. He also scored 11 goals in 141 matches for them. Figo was also quite successful for the Portuguese national team and scored 32 goals in 127 matches for them. He also captained Portugal for a considerable period of time.