Enrique Recalls Figo's Return to Camp Nou: The most intense atmosphere of my Barcelona career

According to Sport, Luis Enrique recalled his shocking experience on the night Figo returned to play against Barcelona at their home stadium.

Life is full of changes, and most of the time no one knows where the end is. Luis Enrique knows this best. He made his debut at Sporting Gijón, then joined Real Madrid, and five years later went to Barcelona. Such a career path is rare.

However, some people have followed the same path, but with the start and end reversed: Luís Figo. In 1995, he came from Sporting CP to Camp Nou, and quickly won the applause of Barcelona fans, until he transferred to the Santiago Bernabéu in 2000.

This decision was seen as the biggest betrayal of the club and fans, and Barcelona fans still bring it up today. This sentiment was still clearly visible a few months ago before a European final.

Luis Enrique was one of those who witnessed the anger the Portuguese endured that year. In the documentary "Camp Nou: Welcome to the Stadium," launched this Tuesday by Movistar+, the current Paris Saint-Germain coach recalled his feelings when he first returned to the Barcelona pitch. "Camp Nou is stunning, it always has been. First, it's stunning even when it's empty," said the former Barcelona player. He never hid his love for Barcelona, even though he is now coaching another team. But he had never experienced a scene like October 21, 2000.

Luis Enrique's conversation with singer David Caraben in the documentary "Camp Nou: Welcome to the Stadium."

"The game with the strongest atmosphere I experienced as a player at Camp Nou was the day Figo returned, and I played there for 8 years," he said in the documentary. "He was one of us, and a brother in the true sense of the word. He was our best player, and then he went to Real Madrid."

The impact of that game was huge, because the Barcelona home stadium is not usually a roaring cauldron. "When you arrived half an hour early, the stadium was still half empty, and there weren't many people during the warm-up. That day, 45 minutes before the game started, the stadium was already packed, and we couldn't even hear each other during the warm-up. I remember telling Abelardo and Guardiola that we couldn't lose this game, no matter who played. The momentum was so great that it was even scary."

"Figo was marked by a very young but already beast-like Puyol. His performance that day was one of Real Madrid's best, despite the pressure he was under, which he himself hadn't anticipated." Barcelona eventually won that game 2-0, with goals from Luis Enrique in the first half and Simão in the second half, but what people remember more is the infamous pig's head thrown onto the pitch from the stands. Nevertheless, he still admitted that "Barcelona and Real Madrid need each other," because one makes the other stronger, and the competition each season brings unique expectations to football. Finally, he also joked that if he were to coach Real Madrid in the future, he might "break records": "No one in history has ever been both a player and a coach for both Barcelona and Real Madrid... I wouldn't do that, and I have no plans to. I've already tried it, and I don't want to do it again now."

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