Luis Figo

Lisbon: Portugal’s former European and World Footballer of the Year Luis Figo has said he wanted to honour his contract with Real Madrid, after unconfirmed reports that the Spanish giants had released the Portugal forward.

“I want to honour my co-ntract” which runs until 2006, Figo told a private Portu-guese television station.

“But if th-at is not their (the Real Mad-rid board) wish, we will have to find an agreement,” he said.

Spanish press reported earlier on Wednesday that Real Madrid had released the 32-year-old, who has been relegated to the bench at Real since early April.

“I have no knowledge of this information but if that has been published today then there will be more in the coming days,” Figo said on Wednesday.

“I’m not playing, so I understand that it can’t be very nice for the club to pay me for not playing. But there are other players in the same situation.”

Despite being on the bench for Real, figo has come out of international retirement hoping to add to the record 110 caps he has won for Portugal.

His return comes with Portugal facing main group III rivals Slovakia in Lisbon on Saturday in a vital World Cup qualifier. They then play in Estonia four days later. (AFP)