Misunderstood by coaches, distrusted by team-mates in a career plagued by injury, the light of Roberto Baggio has shone through it all to be recognised as one of Italy’s all-time greats. This week’s feature on FIFA.com looks back on the career of a northern Italian man, who combined exquisite footballing ability with a magical aura born from an angelic look and the ability to strike at the most crucial moments, to defeat all the demons that stood in his way and be hailed by millions of adoring fans the world over.
Baggio’s is not one of your average contemporary footballer’s tales. It is one of sacrifice and pain in a 20-year struggle to overcome injury handicaps and exploit the genius ability he was born with. Blessed with chiselled cheekbones and handsome features, but also a relatively small stature and frail physique in an era of the game when athletes were favoured over artists, the Italian needed all the steely determination beneath those captivating blue eyes in order to succeed. Baggio would wage this battle of beauty over brawn for two decades, capturing the attention of an Italian and global public enamoured by a unique footballer whose touch, talent and creation many thought had been lost to the Azzurri.
Mind control
Born the sixth of eight children in a small town called Caldogno near Vicenza in 1967, Roberto was 15 when he made his debut for the local team in Serie C1. Three years later he was playing in Serie A with Fiorentina but he suffered the first of three separate career-threatening knee injuries. The introverted Italian converted to Buddhism. “I needed something deeper than the Catholic religion. Buddhism helps me control my mind better,” he explained, though he took three months to tell his mother.
It was a major turning-point. He rejected the stereotypical footballer’s lifestyle, married his childhood sweetheart from Caldogno and though his choice of religion and solitary, pre-match meditative practices naturally alienated his team-mates, it gave the 20-year-old Baggio the inner strength to perform in spite of the pain. Although not an out-and-out striker, he was soon carving out goals for his new club and winning the hearts of Florentines already spoiled by the everyday sight of fabulous craftsmanship.
When Baggio was sold to Juventus for a world record $13m before the 1990 FIFA World Cup Italy™, those adorers rioted for two days. If the world did not know why, they soon found out when the Italian dribbled past half the Czechoslovakian team to score the goal of the finals in his first start and Italy’s final group game. It was not enough. Coach Azeglio Vicini left the new “golden boy” out of the semi-final, which Italy would lose to Argentina on penalties, a decision by a coach that would, not for the last time, rankle with Italy’s fanatical football-loving public. “He said I looked tired,” said the disappointed player, who had been brought on in the second half, converting one of Italy’s penalties. “I was 23! I would have eaten grass to play.”
Out of position
Greatness had arrived and most people knew it. The problem was the game was evolving and the Milan school of pressure football engineered by Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello had no room for “individualists” like Baggio. Even Juventus’ French hero Michel Platini could not make his number. “Baggio is still a 9 and a half, that is an attacker that operates from deep. But in a game which is increasingly uniform he is one of the few who can tip the balance,” he said in 1993, the year the player had truly confirmed his earlier promise and helped the “Old Lady” to a UEFA Cup triumph, claiming the FIFA World Player of the Year award and European Golden Ball to boot.
Baggio, 27, was at his peak with his divine ponytail poetry in motion and another world finals beckoning. With Italy down to ten men after 22 minutes of their second match at USA 94 (they had lost 1-0 to Republic of Ireland in the opener), Sacchi shocked a watching world and dumbfounded “Il Divino Codino” by bringing Italy’s number 10 off. The tactical change worked, Italy won and later qualified but it was Baggio who in the knockout stages saved Italy by snatching late goals against Nigeria and Spain and two in the semi-final against Bulgaria to push Italy through to the World Cup Final against Brazil.
The pain of the physical sacrifice told though and the five-goal hero was advised by doctors not to play. In the days leading up to the world’s most popular sporting match, millions the world over prayed while hundreds outside a Bangladeshi Buddhist temple, for which Baggio’s money had helped restore, chanted for his health.
Such was the fervour, Sacchi had little choice in the matter. “I received a shot and broke my tooth,” described an adrenalin-fuelled Baggio of the injection. “Unfortunately we Italians eat pasta al dente.”
Limp Final
Football was not the winner that day and more than 120 minutes later, Baggio was the last man to limp to the penalty spot but not the first to send the ball up to the heavens. “I was there in body and spirit, my concentration was good. Normally I side-foot them but I had so little energy left that I just tried to blast it.”
Baggio’s is not one of your average contemporary footballer’s tales. It is one of sacrifice and pain in a 20-year struggle to overcome injury handicaps and exploit the genius ability he was born with. Blessed with chiselled cheekbones and handsome features, but also a relatively small stature and frail physique in an era of the game when athletes were favoured over artists, the Italian needed all the steely determination beneath those captivating blue eyes in order to succeed. Baggio would wage this battle of beauty over brawn for two decades, capturing the attention of an Italian and global public enamoured by a unique footballer whose touch, talent and creation many thought had been lost to the Azzurri.
Mind control
Born the sixth of eight children in a small town called Caldogno near Vicenza in 1967, Roberto was 15 when he made his debut for the local team in Serie C1. Three years later he was playing in Serie A with Fiorentina but he suffered the first of three separate career-threatening knee injuries. The introverted Italian converted to Buddhism. “I needed something deeper than the Catholic religion. Buddhism helps me control my mind better,” he explained, though he took three months to tell his mother.
It was a major turning-point. He rejected the stereotypical footballer’s lifestyle, married his childhood sweetheart from Caldogno and though his choice of religion and solitary, pre-match meditative practices naturally alienated his team-mates, it gave the 20-year-old Baggio the inner strength to perform in spite of the pain. Although not an out-and-out striker, he was soon carving out goals for his new club and winning the hearts of Florentines already spoiled by the everyday sight of fabulous craftsmanship.
When Baggio was sold to Juventus for a world record $13m before the 1990 FIFA World Cup Italy™, those adorers rioted for two days. If the world did not know why, they soon found out when the Italian dribbled past half the Czechoslovakian team to score the goal of the finals in his first start and Italy’s final group game. It was not enough. Coach Azeglio Vicini left the new “golden boy” out of the semi-final, which Italy would lose to Argentina on penalties, a decision by a coach that would, not for the last time, rankle with Italy’s fanatical football-loving public. “He said I looked tired,” said the disappointed player, who had been brought on in the second half, converting one of Italy’s penalties. “I was 23! I would have eaten grass to play.”
Out of position
Greatness had arrived and most people knew it. The problem was the game was evolving and the Milan school of pressure football engineered by Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello had no room for “individualists” like Baggio. Even Juventus’ French hero Michel Platini could not make his number. “Baggio is still a 9 and a half, that is an attacker that operates from deep. But in a game which is increasingly uniform he is one of the few who can tip the balance,” he said in 1993, the year the player had truly confirmed his earlier promise and helped the “Old Lady” to a UEFA Cup triumph, claiming the FIFA World Player of the Year award and European Golden Ball to boot.
Baggio, 27, was at his peak with his divine ponytail poetry in motion and another world finals beckoning. With Italy down to ten men after 22 minutes of their second match at USA 94 (they had lost 1-0 to Republic of Ireland in the opener), Sacchi shocked a watching world and dumbfounded “Il Divino Codino” by bringing Italy’s number 10 off. The tactical change worked, Italy won and later qualified but it was Baggio who in the knockout stages saved Italy by snatching late goals against Nigeria and Spain and two in the semi-final against Bulgaria to push Italy through to the World Cup Final against Brazil.
The pain of the physical sacrifice told though and the five-goal hero was advised by doctors not to play. In the days leading up to the world’s most popular sporting match, millions the world over prayed while hundreds outside a Bangladeshi Buddhist temple, for which Baggio’s money had helped restore, chanted for his health.
Such was the fervour, Sacchi had little choice in the matter. “I received a shot and broke my tooth,” described an adrenalin-fuelled Baggio of the injection. “Unfortunately we Italians eat pasta al dente.”
Limp Final
Football was not the winner that day and more than 120 minutes later, Baggio was the last man to limp to the penalty spot but not the first to send the ball up to the heavens. “I was there in body and spirit, my concentration was good. Normally I side-foot them but I had so little energy left that I just tried to blast it.”
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