Figo: Suspended and Abroad, But Rocking the Charity

By: Martha | April 25th, 2007

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Purely platonic shirt-exchange. I have it on good authority that Luis Figo’s sad absence from Inter’s Scudetto celebrations was due not to one-foot-out-the-door jadedness and a disinterested in traveling to a game from which he was suspended, but rather to the fact that his mother-in-law is ill, and he and his family traveled to Sweden to visit her. (In case you were wondering — I couldn’t have been the only one. Right? Bueller?) Despite being away from football, however, he’s been a busy, good-hearted bee, setting up benefits right and left.

First we’ve got the recently announced Fundação Luís Figo (that word’s not a terrible disease, it means “Foundation”) charity football match, which will take place in Lisbon in early June. The big news about this match is less its existence than the fact that both Figo and his old teammate and adversary Zinedine Zidane will be on the pitch, presumably captaining the two teams. Also scheduled to appear are former Barca players Luis Enrique, Sergi and Guardiola, as well as hopefully a slew of other, wildly important people. (On a personal note, I’m greeting this news with even greater excitement than I normally do any mention of the word “Figo,” because I’m actually going to be in Lisbon in June and am determined to go to the game, come hell or high water. Anyone know the web address for the Portuguese Ticketmaster?)

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Figo has found himself a far odder bedfellow (nudge nudge): He’s teaming up with Shakira — yes, that Shakira — to open a sporting school in Barranquilla, Colombia. From what I can tell this is some sort of spinoff of his foundation, but as to the questions of why Colombia and, more importantly, why Shakira, your guess is as good as mine. I just hope the school plans to offer a belly-dancing sub-academy alongside that whole football thing.