Portuguese Legend before Cristiano Ronaldo: From Figo's "Golden Generation" to Mourinho

1996, the European Cup in England, Portugal returned to the mainstream football territory after missing four major events. Portuguese "Golden Generation" players made their debut in international competitions. The bloody battleship officially set sail.

In the first game against the defending champion Denmark, Sapinto and George W. laudrup scored equally; In the second service, in the face of the new army Turkey, captain Cotto headed the ball; The third matchup is also a golden generation. Croatian team, with Suker, Bo Ban, Boksic, Porto Sinecky and other stars, Figo, joao pinto and Domingos scored three goals in a row and won 3-0 cleanly.

In the final of 1/4, Portugal's opponent was a dark horse, which eliminated the Italian Czech team, and Popovschi's winner became famous. And Costa and Figo can only feel dejected. This trophy belongs to the Czech gold generation, but not to them. ...

1996 In the summer, after helping Juventus win the European Champions Cup, Paul Sosa was sold to Dortmund, Germany. In the new season, he killed his old club in the Champions League final and achieved dramatic revenge. I don't know how much Juventus regrets at this time.

Bai Ya, who performed well in the European Cup, followed her mentor Robson to Barcelona, and won the Spanish King's Cup and the European Winners' Cup with Figo, ranking second only behind Capello's Real Madrid in the league.

Barcelona's star will never die. C Ronaldo went to Inter Milan as soon as he became famous, and another Brazilian who succeeded him, rivaldo, became Figo's best collaborator. In the following years, under the leadership of another famous Dutch coach, Fan Jiaer, they won two La Liga titles. Rivaldo became the World Footballer of the Year and the Golden Globe Footballer after Ronaldo. Figo was more respected and supported by local fans, and became another foreign captain after cruyff in the history of Barcelona.

Like Figo, the genius of the golden generation has become an important force in European football. 1998 World Cup qualifier failed to crush the national team, but they rallied and qualified for the 2000 European Cup.

However, they were not as lucky as they were four years ago, and they were divided into the death group: the vibrant English team based on Manchester United's triple crown in 1999, the last blog of 90 generations of German famous houses led by matthaeus, and the Romanian Golden Generation led by Haji, who won five consecutive victories and entered the semi-finals four times. Judging from past achievements, Portugal is undoubtedly the weakest link in the group.

Portugal fell behind England 0-2 in the first game. At this critical moment, the hero stepped forward, and Costa's three precise assists directed a shocking reversal. Figo's winning shot not only changed the history of Portuguese football, but also changed his own star journey and career, and completed the sublimation from a star to a contemporary superstar.

Number seven and number seven. 10 co-starred, and the knight who cut the flag in front of them was Gomez, a blond boy who chased the wind. His four goals against England, Turkey and France made people no longer feel sorry for the talented striker Sapinto who ruined his future. Joao pinto, another Pinto, also contributed.

Costinha took a free kick from Figo at the last second to kill Romania. The team that had already qualified ahead of schedule in the third game simply played against Germany, and Germany only scored one point. I didn't expect the second team to come off the bench, and Conceicao scored a hat trick and destroyed old Ramstein 3-0.

1/4 finals, once again facing the fiasco of Xingyue Army four years ago, 2-0 left the opponent speechless.

The semi-final opponent is the world champion France led by a new generation of king Zidane. Gomez took the lead and the experienced French team immediately equalized. At this time, the most controversial scene of this tournament appeared. The Frenchman kicked off and hit the hand of Portuguese defender Xavier. The referee actually awarded a penalty. Angry Figo protested ineffectively and was sent off. The splendid performance of the golden generation was stifled by the referee and Zidane who was awarded a penalty.

But their fantastic performance was recognized, and Figo and Rui were naturally selected for the best team of the event.

During the transfer period after the European Cup, Madeleine Philippe once again shocked Europe. Real estate businessman Ferrarentino promised, "If elected, Figo will be elected President of Real Madrid. In order not to put Vega, the agent who owed him a big favor in the past transfer farce, in prison, and Barcelona refused to pay compensation, Figo had no choice but to switch to Real Madrid. Although he brought Barcelona a sky-high transfer fee of 56.5 million yuan, he was still regarded as the "most shameful traitor" in the history of the team by Camp Nou.

The wonderful performance in the European Cup and the shocking effect brought by the sky-high transfer price made Figo be elected as the Golden Globe Award and the second World Footballer of the Year. At this time, he was recognized as the world's best player alongside Zidane.

00-0 1 season, Figo, as the new leader of Real Madrid 10, led the team to win the La Liga championship after a four-year absence. 0 1-02 season, he cooperated with Zidane, and two emperors and superstars won the first and only European Champions Cup. At 0 1, he became the first Portuguese to win the World Footballer of the Year. At this time, 30-year-old Madeleine Phillips was in full swing.

In the 2002 World Cup qualifiers in Korea and Japan, Portugal convincingly defeated the powerful Dutch team, leaving the sadness of going out to the opponent and the joy of promotion to itself. This is also the golden generation, and it is also the first time that Figo and Costa, who have made great achievements, made their debut in the highest hall of world football.

Sadly, they were collectively lost in the scorching sun of East Asia. In the first game, the head coach abandoned the midfielder Costa, and the team lost to the weak team USA 2-3. In the second game, Costa, who came back again, wrote the master's hand, assisted three times and scored a goal to help striker pauleta score a hat trick to beat the Polish team.

The third game is like a host possessed by divine power. In just 70 minutes, South Korea, the "biggest miracle" of this tournament, was sent off with two red cards and lost in panic and went home. Figo even handed over the embarrassing data of 0 goals and 0 shots.

However, after a small test, the Korean team did the same thing, beating Italy and Spain to reach the semi-finals, not to mention it for the time being. Brazil, under the leadership of a stubborn old man, won the championship with 7 wins out of 7 in the situation that people were not optimistic before the game.

The old man named Scolari later became famous and was hired by the Portuguese Football Association, which was eager for talents. This proved to be a new turning point in Portuguese football, which no one expected in advance. ...

In the 2002 World Cup, under the leadership of 0 1 World Player of the Year Figo, Portuguese gold-generation players reached the highest hall of international football for the first time, but they were unaccustomed in the hot Japan-South Korea division. In the third group match, they ate two yellow cards for the host South Korea, which was a pity.

In the 2002-03 season, Real Madrid President Ferrarentino partnered with Figo and Zidane under the command of World Cup hero Ronaldo. At that time, the three strongest players in the world joined hands to win the La Liga championship. This is also the last glory of Real Madrid's superstar era. In the following two years, Real Madrid successively introduced two English superstars, Beckham and Owen, to form the so-called "Seven-Star Galaxy Battleship", but nothing was achieved.

Previously, in the 00~0 1 season, Rui Costa took over the captain's armband of Florence, supported this bankrupt team together with nuno gomes, and won this year's Coppa Italia. However, due to the financial crisis, he was resold to AC Milan by the team at a high price of 3 1 10,000 yuan. The scene of tears in Milan touched countless Viola fans.

After experiencing the discomfort at the beginning of the transfer, Rui began his fantastic performance in 2002-03. In the game against Real Madrid, he crossed four defenders for 60 meters and made a victory. In the away game against La Coruna, he assisted the director to win 4-0. This season, after paulo sousa and Figo, Rui also made the podium of the European Cup as the core.

In the 0304 season, Rui was replaced by the young Brazilian golden boy Kaka, but on the bench, he remained in danger many times, winning the league championship for AC Milan in 2003-04 and making great achievements again.

In AC Milan's five-year career, he was only the main player for two years, leaving an amazing data of 54 assists, creating the team history at that time.

Figo and Costa's comrades-in-arms have also reached the twilight of their careers, either retiring or killing time in small teams. The only exception is the forever No.99 Bai Ya, who returned to his hometown of Porto and met a group of talented young coaches who returned to his hometown to start a business from the giant Barcelona. His name will resound through the world in the future. They are called the successors of the golden generation, Mourinho and his Porto family.

After winning the UEFA Cup in 2002-2003, Mourinho and his disciples set their sights on the Champions League in 2003-2004. They followed Real Madrid in the group stage, eliminated Manchester United in the final 1/8, defeated Lyon in the final 1/4, and miraculously won the championship trophy in the semi-final and final. This is also the fourth time that Portuguese football has won the Champions League and the ninth time it has appeared in the final.

Deco, Carvalho, Macheni, Ferreira, costinha and other names are also known to the world with Bai Ya. They have created greater glory than the golden generation and directly pushed Portugal from a second-rate football power to a world-class team.

In this year's UEFA selection, Bai Ya was named the best goalkeeper of the year, Carvalho became the best defender of the year, Deco won the best midfielder and player of the year, and won the silver ball award this year. A bumper harvest of football in Portugal.