{"id":59413,"date":"2026-07-23T02:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T02:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/59413\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T02:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T02:58:08","slug":"luis-figo-weighs-in-on-rodri-mbappes-ballon-dor-chances-and-real-madrids-priorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/59413\/","title":{"rendered":"Lu\u00eds Figo weighs in on Rodri, Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s Ballon d\u2019Or chances, and Real Madrid\u2019s priorities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Real Madrid<\/a> legend Lu\u00eds Figo shared his thoughts on several of football\u2019s biggest talking points while speaking at a Betfair event, discussing Rodri<\/a>\u2019s links to the Spanish giants, the Ballon d\u2019Or race following the FIFA World Cup, and what Jos\u00e9 Mourinho\u2019s side must accomplish this season.<\/p>\n

Figo was first asked about the persistent speculation linking Manchester City<\/a> midfielder Rodri with a move to Real Madrid. While acknowledging the reports, the former Ballon d\u2019Or winner admitted that completing such a transfer would be far from straightforward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know there\u2019s been talk of Rodri coming to Real Madrid. I think it will be difficult because he\u2019s under contract with Manchester City, but everyone knows that Real Madrid always wants to sign the best players in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Figo also praised Rodri\u2019s performances during the World Cup, highlighting the midfielder\u2019s overall influence rather than focusing solely on traditional attacking statistics.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, Rodri has had a great World Cup, even though he hasn\u2019t stood out much in terms of goals or assists.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Portuguese icon also offered his view on this year\u2019s Ballon d\u2019Or race. He believes Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a>\u2019s outstanding World Cup campaign has strengthened his candidacy but stressed that performances across the entire season\u2014including domestic competitions and the Champions League\u2014should carry significant weight.<\/p>\n

\u201cMbapp\u00e9 and his great World Cup performance will surely put him among the potential winners. And I would certainly include a PSG player who has won the Champions League again. The whole year should count. Logically, the World Cup can tip the scales when choosing the winner, but domestic titles and the Champions League are also very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the other names Figo believes deserve consideration are Paris Saint-Germain duo Vitinha<\/a> and D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Dou\u00e9, both of whom impressed throughout the club season despite Portugal\u2019s disappointing World Cup campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would perhaps highlight Vitinha and Dou\u00e9, who have had a great season despite the World Cup not going so well for them, especially for Portugal. I would include all of them among the candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back on the recently concluded World Cup, Figo had no doubts about the deserved champions, praising Spain for their consistency throughout the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpain was the best team, not just in the final, but throughout the entire competition. They only conceded one goal. Overall, I think they were the most consistent team and also the ones who played the best football, so Spain\u2019s World Cup victory was, without a doubt, the victory of the best team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Figo turned his attention to his former club and the expectations surrounding Real Madrid heading into the new campaign under Jos\u00e9 Mourinho. After two seasons without silverware, he believes the club\u2019s objective is clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the most important thing for Real Madrid now will be to win again after two years without titles.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real Madrid legend Lu\u00eds Figo shared his thoughts on several of football\u2019s biggest talking points while speaking at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[830,187,4297,557,6095,82,272,1819,83,1102,7290,369],"class_list":["post-59413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-madrid","tag-arsenal-fc","tag-champions-league","tag-jose-mourinho","tag-kylian-mbappe","tag-luis-figo","tag-madrid","tag-manchester-city","tag-paris-saint-germain","tag-real-madrid","tag-rodri","tag-vitinha","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}