Luis Figo Warns: La Liga Could Be Decided Before May

Real Madrid are only a few weeks into the season and already staring at a brutal reality: they are six points off the top and chasing a Barcelona side that has hit the accelerator and refused to lift its foot. Now, one of the club’s most emblematic figures has said out loud what many in Madrid whisper in private.

Luis Figo, the man whose move from Barcelona to Real Madrid in 2000 redefined the Clasico’s temperature, has openly admitted just how irresistible the Catalans look right now. And he did not bother to sugar-coat the warning.

Barcelona perfect, Madrid stumbling

Speaking to Spanish radio station “Marca”, Figo laid out the numbers that have La Liga tilting blaugrana in the early weeks. Barcelona have taken 21 points from 21, scoring 31 goals in the process. Perfect record. Relentless attack. A start that forces everyone else to look up.

“They have started very strongly. They are winning, playing well and scoring goals. For Spanish football, this is of course a good thing,” the current UEFA adviser said, his admiration clear.

The praise came with a sting for his old club. Figo suggested that if this pace continues, the title race might not even make it to the final stretch. La Liga, he warned, could be effectively settled before May.

That is the nightmare scenario for Madrid: a season decided while the spring still feels distant.

A long season, but no excuses

Figo, though, knows better than anyone that a league is not won in autumn. He quickly shifted from admiration to perspective.

“We have to wait and see how the season develops, because it is very long,” he noted, reminding listeners that even the most dominant starts can buckle under the weight of months of pressure, injuries, and form.

Despite the early gap, he refused to bury Madrid’s chances.

“I am sure Real Madrid will compete until the end,” he insisted, backing the club he joined in that seismic summer of 2000 to find its footing again.

For Figo, the key is not panic, but durability.

“This is a competition that requires consistency until the month of May. There will be ups and downs during the season, and when they happen the team must show the maturity and quality to overcome them.”

It was a message aimed less at the headline table and more at the dressing room mentality: the league is a marathon, and champions respond when the road gets rough.

Derby defeat and Mourinho’s fury

Madrid’s latest stumble came in the city derby, a 2-0 defeat to Atletico on Sunday that deepened the gloom around Carlo Ancelotti’s side. Curiously, Figo did not see it live. He was in Zurich and only followed events from afar.

That distance extended to the post-match storm as well. Asked about Jose Mourinho’s fiery comments on the refereeing in his press conference, Figo stepped away from the controversy.

“He did what he thought he would do at that moment. I do not have to comment on it. I think these are personal acts, and if he did it, it was because he felt that way,” he said, cool and detached.

No defence. No criticism. Just a clear line: Mourinho speaks for Mourinho.

Ballon d’Or? Not his call

The conversation then moved from the collective struggle of Madrid to the individual spotlight of the Ballon d’Or. Voting closes next Monday, but Figo wanted no part in the annual storm of opinions.

“I do not vote, so this is not on my mind. Those who make the decision are the ones who vote and we have to wait,” he said, refusing to be drawn into a debate that usually dominates this part of the calendar.

No favourites. No predictions. Just distance.

Mbappé, the constant

There was, however, one player he was happy to dwell on. Kylian Mbappé.

“He is always at a very high level. He has got us used to being one of the best players in the world and to scoring goals,” Figo said, offering a simple, sharp verdict on a forward who continues to shape every conversation about the game’s elite.

In a week when Barcelona look untouchable, Madrid look vulnerable, and the Ballon d’Or looms again, Figo’s words land with the weight of someone who has lived all of it at the highest level.

Barcelona are flying. Real Madrid are chasing. The season is long, he reminds everyone — but if this pace holds, how long will that still matter?