Luis Figo stopped from appearing in Barcelona-Juventus team

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Luis Figo with the Super CupImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Luis Figo celebrates with the Uefa Super Cup in 1997

A pig's head was thrown at him when he returned as a rival player and Luis Figo's relationship with Barcelona has taken another sour turn.

The ex-Portugal winger, 42, has been blocked by the club from playing in a combined Juventus and Barcelona legends team to face a World XI on Friday.

Figo's inclusion prompted anger from fans of the club, still unforgiving of his move to Real Madrid in 2000.

Barcelona took the issue to Uefa, who agreed to withdraw Figo from the team.

Barca have not fully explained the reasoning for the move to stop Figo from taking part in the fixture, which takes place 24 hours before the club meet Juventus in the Champions League final in Berlin.

Image source, FC Barcelona
Image caption,

Barcelona tweeted news of Uefa sanctioning their block on Figo

Edwin van der Sar, Alessandro Del Piero and Fabio Cannavaro are just three of the names who will feature for the combination team,, external which will be managed by Brazil legend Zico.

Figo, who joined Barcelona in 1995, won two La Liga titles with the club but joined Real for £37m in July of 2000, winning Fifa's Ballon d'Or award four months later as a result of much of his performances for Barca over the year.

On his return to the Nou Camp, banners were in place to taunt him and objects were thrown in his direction including a pig's head.

Former Real full-back Michel Salgado famously said: "By the second or third corner I turned to Luis Figo and said 'Forget it, mate. You're on your own'. I used to offer Luis the chance to take the short corner, drawing up close to him near the touchline, but not this time. Missiles were raining down from the stands."

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Some fans burnt images of Figo when he returned to face Barcelona with Real Madrid

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