Barcelona have come out of the blocks like a team in a hurry. Seven games, seven wins, 21 points from 21. Thirty-one goals scored. Top of LaLiga and already six clear of Real Madrid.
That kind of start doesn’t just move the table. It moves opinion – even in Madrid.
Figo’s reluctant nod to a flying Barça
Luis Figo, a name that still divides Spain along a very sharp line, has been watching. The former Real Madrid and Barcelona star, now a UEFA adviser and a regular voice around the European game, did not try to play down what Hansi Flick has built in record time.
Speaking to Radio MARCA, Figo admitted what every scoreboard in Spain already says.
“They have started very strong. They're winning, they're playing very well, they're scoring goals,” he said, summing up a Barcelona side that has turned early-season fixtures into target practice.
For a player so closely tied to the Bernabéu, it was a rare, open compliment to a Barcelona team that suddenly looks ruthless again. Flick’s front line has cut through opponents, the numbers brutal and the performances convincing enough to silence much of the early scepticism around the German’s arrival.
But Figo did not stay in praise mode for long.
“The season is very long” – a familiar warning
The Portuguese quickly shifted the lens from September to May.
“You have to see how the season goes, which is very long,” he pointed out, a reminder that LaLiga is not won in autumn. For all the fireworks of Barcelona’s start, Figo framed it within a bigger picture: the health of Spanish football.
“For Spanish football, logically, it is good,” he added, acknowledging that a strong Barcelona lifts the overall level of the league, even if it complicates life for his old club.
That is where the conversation inevitably turned.
Faith in Madrid’s response
A six-point gap in late summer looks big on paper, but Figo has lived too many title races to panic. He remains convinced Real Madrid will not fade from the picture.
“Surely Madrid will compete until the end. This is a competition that has to be regular until May. There will be highs and lows during the season,” he said.
Those “highs and lows” are where he believes titles are really decided.
“When there are lows you have to have the maturity and also the quality to overcome them and move on,” he added.
It sounded less like commentary and more like a veteran laying out the script he has seen countless times: a fast starter, a chasing Madrid, a long winter where form, depth and nerve decide everything. Barcelona have landed the first punch. Madrid, in Figo’s eyes, will still be there for the final rounds.
Ballon d’Or talk – and the Mbappé factor
Figo also stepped into another debate that refuses to quieten: the Ballon d'Or. Voting closes on Monday, and the arguments have been raging for weeks.
This time, the 2000 winner stayed firmly on the fence.
“Who has the power to decide is the one who votes. You have to wait to see what happens. I don't vote, so I don't have that problem in my head,” he said, refusing to back any single candidate.
He did, however, make room for one familiar name.
On Kylian Mbappé, Figo was clear: “He is always at a very high level. He's one of the best in the world, to score goals.”
While he stopped short of calling Mbappé his pick for the award, the respect was obvious. The Frenchman’s consistency, his numbers, his constant presence in the biggest conversations – all of it keeps him near the centre of every Ballon d'Or discussion.
Yet, despite Figo’s words, the early noise around this year’s prize has drifted in a different direction. Lamine Yamal has surged into the spotlight, his rise so rapid that his name now leads many of the trends. Alongside him, Barcelona teammate Rodri and Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane have also forced their way into the race with relentless performances.
Barcelona sit top of LaLiga, their young stars shaping the narrative and their new coach setting a fierce pace. Madrid chase, as they so often do. The Ballon d'Or debate rumbles on.
If this is only the opening act of the season, what will the run-in look like when the pressure truly bites?
