Luis Figo and Portugal coach Filipe Scolari chat during practice near Lisbon on Tuesday. Portugal play Slovakia in a World Cup qualifier on Saturday. (AFP)

Madrid: Former World and European Player of the Year Luis Figo has been given the green light to leave Real Madrid, a Spanish sports daily reported on Wednesday.

The report said the 32-year-old Portuguese international, who fell out with Real coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo after being consigned to the bench for the latter part of the season, had been given permission to negotiate with other clubs.

Figo, who has a year to run on his contract at Real, agreed recently to come out of international retirement after being dropped by Luxemburgo and has made it clear that he is unhappy at the way he has been treated by the club. “The way they treated me when I was dropped wasn’t right,” he told the paper on Tuesday. “They didn’t tell me I wasn’t going to play. It really hurt my pride.”

Real’s director of football Arrigo Sacchi said Figo’s future at the club was in the balance.

“I don’t know whether he will stay,” the Italian said. “He’s got a contract with us and I hope he stays because he could still be a great player for us and he is a great professional.

“But I think his future depends more on him than it does on us... If he continues to feel bad about his situation, then it won’t be good for him or for us.”

Figo joined Real in 2000 in one of the most controversial transfers in the history of Spanish football when newly elected club president Florentino Perez paid a then world record $56 million to buy him out of his contract with arch-rivals Barcelona. The midfielder, who is viewed as Real’s first Galactico signing, helped guide them to the league title in his first season at the club and played an important part in their victories in the 2002 European Cup and the 2003 Spanish championship.