Summer is seventh heaven for the greats of soccer 27/10/2000
Updated: 27-Oct-2000
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Luís Figo (right) with Paulo China in Bar 7
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They call it ‘Figo’s Bar’, and the great man's picture graces almost every wall. The place can be found at one corner of the horse-shoe shaped marina, a long bar with outdoor tables and a cosy-looking restaurant next door. It is full to the brim every time there is a big international game.
It is, in fact, co-owned by Luís Figo (pictured right), the infinitely talented Portuguese who went down in history when he switched from Barcelona to Real Madrid at the beginning of the season and became the most expensive football transfer in Portugal – and the world. The other partner is that unmistakable Vilamoura figure, the large man with an oriental moon-face who knows everybody in town and is recognised by more people there than the Pope. Paulo China likes to say Bar 7 was Figo’s idea; a place to watch football when you’re not playing it.
The giant screen and TV sets left, right and centre mean business. “People watch sports here, listen to music, have a drink and talk to friends,” he said. “Bar 7 is for hanging out or talking while waiting to go and eat at a restaurant. I think it was badly needed here in Vilamoura. Just the place to relax.”
The tables outside are shaded by large umbrella canopies. Vilamoura’s fashionable are sliding by. Looking around, there is a melting pot of nationalities and an assortment of clientéle. Everyone from backpacking Aussies to the well-to-do northern European Marinotel sojourners. Bar 7 has something for everybody, but it obviously attracts a particular crowd. Portuguese footballers, primarily the international stars who own properties in Vilamoura, like to pop in every time they are around.
The most probable reason is because they feel at home here like nowhere else. They are, after all, visiting a friend. Paulo China knows the entire Portuguese squad and has followed their endeavours since they were anonymous junior hopefuls. The players – Luís Figo, Paulo Sousa, Sá Pinto, Cadete, João Vieira Pinto, Jorge Costa, Abel Xavier, Fernando Couto, to name a few – have reached stardom and attract international attention, but to China they are still the wide-eyed, aspiring talent he first saw in Vilamoura when they were training for a junior world championship. “Vilamoura welcomed them then,” remembers Paulo China. “They did not forget that welcome and have never failed to come back.”
Paulo is a highly successful entrepreneur who loves Vilamoura but abhors "the lack of vision" that tourism authorities have shown regarding this football phenomenom associated with the resort. “People come from far and wide to visit this bar,” he said. “Why don’t the authorities pick up on that? Why pay millions for one-night appearances by stars that don’t mean much to the ordinary person when these guys are here on holiday?”
Next door to the open bar is the restaurant, a cosy place which would look like so many unpretentious restaurants serving excellent food were it not for the memorabilia decorating it. Photographs of footballers galore and the signed shirts of the great… Rivaldo of Barcelona, Ronaldo while still in Barcelona, Batistuta in Fiorentina and Alan Shearer’s black and white as well as those of Luís Figo and Eusébio.
Seeing is believing. Bar 7 is either the favourite footballer’s haunt in the Algarve or it is the most relaxed bar in Vilamoura marina – or it is the most informal football museum I have ever seen. Or it’s all three. Whatever the reason, Bar 7 is a great success. And although Paulo China believes most of it is owed to Luís Figo and other star appearances, he is wrong.
Much of it is owed to Luís Figo and other star appearances, but Bar 7 would not be the same without Paulo China, his staff and that Vilamoura welcome.
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