The producers behind the documentary biopic Pelé are producing a new Spanish-language soccer documentary for Netflix, this time focusing on the controversial transfer of one of the sport’s biggest stars.
Produced by London-based Pitch Productions for Netflix, El Caso Figo (The Figo Affair) will cover Luіs Figo’s 2000 transfer from Barcelona to the club’s hated rival, Real Madrid, for a world-record fee of €62 million — a move that left Barcelona fans feeling betrayed, and resulted in intense home-crowd hostility when Figo returned to the city to play against his former club.
Considered one of the greatest Portuguese footballers of all time, Figo totaled 106 assists in his career in La Liga — the second-most in the league’s history, behind only Lionel Messi — and, around the time of his transfer, won both the 2000 Ballon d’Or (awarded to the best football player in Europe) and 2001 FIFA World Player of the Year honor.
The documentary features new interviews with Figo — who has often avoided questions about the Real Madrid transfer in the past, according to the doc’s directing team — as well as Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez, former Barcelona team president Joan Gaspart, and Figo’s former Barcelona teammate Pep Guardiola.
David Tryhorn and Ben Nicholas, who directed Pelé, helm the Figo doc as well. Pitch’s head of production, Marie-Denise Dormis, serves as line producer for the film, while Max Dobbyn developed the doc and acted as consulting producer.
“It’s increasingly hard to find sports documentaries that are saying something new, that aren’t simply biographies or histories of sporting successes, so we believe El Caso Figo is unique,” Tryhorn said in a news release. “Focusing on the transfer rather than Figo’s career, the film informs us about truth, greed, morality and the inner workings of the world’s most popular sport.
“We wanted the film to feel like a Hitchcockian thriller, one that plays with notions of the truth. We also only wanted to interview people with firsthand testimonies of the transfer so that the drama could play out in the present tense.”
Tryhorn was recently appointed Pitch’s creative director, overseeing the company’s productions and creative strategy. Dobbyn, meanwhile, who joined Pitch as head of development in 2020, has also recently been promoted to head of documentaries, but will continue to manage the development team as well.
The prodco’s other sports docs include Andy Murray: Resurfacing and All or Nothing: Brazil National Team for Amazon, as well as Neymar: The Perfect Chaos for Netflix, about the eponymous Brazilian soccer star.
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