Forgotten Hero: Roberto Baggio

 Roberto Baggio, the retired Italian international, was an exceptionally gifted player and had an illustrious career spanning 22 long years. During the span of his career, he played for prominent teams such as Juventus, AC Milan, and Inter Milan, and was considered an indispensable asset to the teams because of his spectacular contributions. 

With some all time records to his name, he carved a permanent name for himself among the football record books and in the hearts of all fans of the beautiful sport. 

         

18YB here takes a look at the contributions made by this legend to the world of football.

Starting off in the year 1982, Baggio was signed by Vicenza, which is now playing its football in the  Serie B. After playing 36 games and scoring in 13 of them for Vicenza, Baggio’s skillful play caught the eye of Fiorentina, where he went on to play 94 matches, and added 39 more goals to his Serie A record. But being the gifted player that he was, Baggio was destined to play for bigger clubs and in the year 1990, he signed a 5 year contract with Juventus which proved to be one of the best decisions of his career. The deal was signed for an astounding sum of $13.6 million, which was the record transfer fee back then. Without a doubt, this transfer created huge uproar and anger among Fiorentina fans. 

At Juventus, Baggio scored 78 goals in 141 matches. As an attacking midfielder, or what you would normally call a ‘second striker’, he averaged an unbelievable 0.55 goals per game. Baggio’s magical run at Juventus saw him winning a Serie A title, 2 UEFA Cups, and 1 Coppa Italia. But a recurring knee injury during the 1994-95 season ensured that Roberto stayed out of action for a long while and ended up scoring just 8 goals for the club. As the season ended, Juventus’ coach Marcello Lippi decided that Roberto was could no longer fit into the club’s long term plans and put him up for transfer; an opportunity that was grabbed by Milan after pressure from now Italy’s Prime Minister and then Milan’s Chairman Silvio Berlusconi, in spite of interest from other clubs like Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers. 

Baggio won both the European Player of the year and the World Player of the year while playing for the Turin side

At Milan, the Divine Ponytail, as he came to be known, made significant contributions to the club and won the Serie A once again, with the highlight being his penalty kick against his former club Fiorentina in a match that proved to be the title decider. 

Baggio in Milan's famous black and red

A couple of years on though, in 1997, Baggio found his place in Bologna, a club that was on the brink of relegation. Baggio’s dream run at the club, that saw him scoring his personal best of 22 goals in a single season, not only saved the club from relegation but got them on the 8^th spot. His dream season at Bologna subsequently earned him his much deserved spot (once again after a couple of years since his fall out with Sachhi because of which he was not a part of the Euro 96 squad) in the Italian national side for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. 

Baggio had a number of altercations with his managers leading to absences from both club and national sides

After the 1998 World Cup, Internazionale fancied Baggio and brought him for an undisclosed sum. Baggio stayed at the club for 2 years and played 41 games for them, in which his score tallied 12 goals. In the year 2000, Baggio changed his club once again and made a move to the unfashionable Brescia, a really unpredictable move which proved to be his last club until he retired in the year 2004.

In a long career spanning 2 decades, Roberto Baggio’s talent was neglected due to personal problems with his managers. 

Baggio playing for Milan's fierce cross-town rivals Inter

 While his injury in 1994-95 at Juventus meant that the club manager Lippi started paying more attention to the then upcoming Alessandro Del Piero, he couldn’t survive at AC Milan due to tiffs with Coach Fabio Capello over the limited on-field time he was subjected to. His move to Internazionale proved to be unfortunate as well, since Baggio’s former Juventus manager Mercello Lippi was signed on as the coach. Due to the poor rapport he shared with the former Juve boss, Baggio found himself warming the bench for a greater part of the season.

Amidst all the Player-Coach controversies that he was subjected to, Baggio always was a remarkable player. His craft of taking free kicks and sheer ability to show flashes of brilliance during all the moves he made was cherished by all his fans, whose votes earned him the #4 spot on FIFA’s Player of the Century online polls. He is preceded only by greats Maradona, Pele, and Portugal’s Eusebio.

Baggio’s vision for through balls, uniqueness in dribbling, dexterous ball control and graceful movements will be remembered by football players and fans alike. His exceptional performances have earned him the Ballon D’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year, awards which every footballer craves for, both in 1993. Apart from these majesties, he is also famous as being the only Italian to score in three back to back FIFA World Cups and is one of the top 3 scorers for his national team alongside legends Paolo Rossi and Christian Vieri.

During the 1994 FIFA World Cup final, Baggio’s was blamed for costing Italy the cup after his penalty sailed over the bar, handing Brazil the trophy. However, fans and true pundits will always remember his heroics that saw him single handedly taking his team till the final.

As for the Divine Ponytail, his famous ponytail and strong belief in Buddhist culture earned him this respectful title.

Written by,

 Kanhaiya Maheshwary

Kanhaiya writes for 18YB 

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