Roberto
Baggio was
born 18 February 1967. Is a retired Italian footballer. Widely regarded as
one of the finest footballers of his generation, Baggio won both
the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year in 1993.Baggio was born
in Caldogno, Veneto. As a youngster, he always had a keen interest in
the sport of football and played for a local youth club over a period of nine
years. After scoring 6 goals in one game, Baggio was persuaded by scout Antonio
Mora to join Vicenza. Roberto Baggio is the 6th of 8 brothers. His younger
brother, Eddy Baggio, is also a footballer who currently plays
with Sangiovannese. Baggio married his girlfriend Andreina Fabbri in 1993.
They have a daughter Valentine and two sons Mattia and Riccardo. Baggio began
his professional career at native club Vicenza in Serie
C1 during 1982. Fiorentina snapped
him up in 1985, and during his years there, he rose to cult status among the
team's fans who consider him to be one of their best ever players. He made
his Serie A debut
on 21 September 1986 against Sampdoria and scored his first league goal on 10
May 1987 against Napoli, in a match best remembered for Napoli winning
the Scudetto for
the first time in their history. He is the only Italian player ever
to score in three World Cups. He is also one of the top 5 all-time
goalscorers for Italy. Baggio is known as Il Divin Codino (The
Divine Ponytail), for the hairstyle he wore for most of his career and his
Buddhist background
In
1990, Baggio was sold to Juventus, amid outcry from Fiorentina fans, in
1990 for €10 million (US$13.6 million), the world record transfer for
a football player at the time. Following the transfer, there were full
scale riots on the streets of Florence where fifty people were
injured. Baggio replied to his fans saying: "I was compelled to
accept the transfer". In the match he played for Juventus against
Fiorentina in 1990, he refused to take a penalty; and when substituted he
picked up a Fiorentina Scarf thrown onto the field by fans and kissed it. He
claimed: "Deep in my heart I am always purple", the colour of
Fiorentina. In 1993, he won his only European club trophy, helping Juventus to the UEFA
Cup final in
which he scored twice. His performances earned him both the European
Footballer of the Year and the FIFA World Player of the
Year titles. In 1995 Baggio won his first Scudetto with Juventus. This was the
first of many league titles to come for Juventus in the 1990s. In 1995, after strong pressure
from Milan chairman Silvio Berlusconi, he was sold to the
Milanese club. At this time, he had been linked with English Premier
League clubs Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers, but no firm offers
were made from either of these clubs. He helped Milan win the Serie
A title, becoming the first player to win the Scudetto in consecutive
years with different teams. In
1997, Baggio transferred to Bologna in
order to resuscitate his career, and after scoring a personal best 22 goals
that year. After the 1998 World Cup, Baggio signed with Internazionale.
This proved to be an unfortunate move, as the then coach Marcello
Lippi did not favour Baggio. This caused Baggio to lose his place in the
national team. In his autobiography, Baggio later declared that Lippi had effectively
dumped him after Baggio had refused to point out which of Inter's players had
expressed negative opinions about the coach.
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His
last contribution to Inter was two goals against Parma in the playoff for the
last remaining UEFA Champions League place, which Inter won 3–1. This
game is considered another prime example of the great professionalism shown by
Baggio throughout his career. Inter president Massimo Moratti had openly declared that
Lippi would only stay on as manager if the team made it into the Champions
League, but Baggio knew that because of his bad relationship with Lippi, that
would also mean that he would have to leave the club himself.
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Baggio
maintained a high level of performance in the next years, playing at Brescia
until his retirement in 2004. He played his last game on 16 May 2004 at
the San Siro against Milan. In the 88th minute, Brescia coach
Gianni De Biasi subbed Baggio off so he could get his curtain call. The 80,000
present at the San Siro gave him a standing ovation. He ended his career with
205 goals in Serie A, making him the sixth-highest scorer of all time
behind Silvio Piola, Gunnar Nordahl, Giuseppe Meazza, José
Altafini and Francesco
Totti. His number 10 jersey was retired by Brescia. He scored his
300th career goal on 16 December 2002 in Brescia's 3–1 home victory
over Piacenza. He was the first player in over 50 years to reach this
milestone, behind only Piola and Meazza. After two years with Inter, in
order to be called up for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, he transferred to
previously unfashionable Brescia. At the start of 2001–02 season, he
scored eight goals in the first nine games. Unfortunately, during that season,
he tore the anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in his left knee; despite
this severe injury, he came back three games before the end of the season,
making a recovery of 76 days. In the first game after his comeback, he scored
two goals against his former team Fiorentina, the first of them after only two
minutes from the start of the match. Then he scored again against another team
he played for, Bologna.
Baggio
totalled 27 goals in 56 caps for his national team, the fourth-highest of all
time for Italy. He is the only Italian player ever to score in three World Cups
with a total of 9 career World Cup goals, which puts him even
with Christian Vieri and Paolo Rossi as Italy's top World Cup
scorers. For all his talent he was never rewarded with a victory in an
international competition. He infamously missed the deciding penalty in the final of
the 1994 FIFA World Cup, which contributed to Italy losing the trophy
to Brazil. Baggio's first World Cup was the 1990 FIFA
World Cup, and although he was used most often as a substitute in the
tournament, he was still able to display his quality, scoring twice including
the "goal of the tournament" against Czechoslovakia. Baggio is also
much remembered for his class; although regularly designated the penalty taker
for his team, he stepped aside when Italy was awarded one in the third place
match against England, allowing teammate Salvatore Schillaci to
score and capture the Golden Shoe.
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Baggio
was the cornerstone of the Italy team during the 1994 FIFA World
Cup, leading them to the final after a disappointing start. He scored five
goals, all in the knockout phase, and he started every match from the
beginning: two in the round of 16 to beat Nigeria (scoring
with 2 minutes left of the game sending it into extra time, and then another
goal in extra time), one in the quarter-finals to top Spain (the game
winner with 3 minutes remaining) and two to beat Bulgaria in the
semi-finals. Baggio was not fully fit for the final against Brazil, which
ended 0–0 after extra time; he took Italy's last penalty in the resulting
shoot-out, but his kick went over the cross-bar and the Brazilians won the
title. Two other Italians, Franco Baresi and Daniele Massaro,
had already missed penalties. Baggio
finished tied for second in the tournament in goals scored and was named one of
the top three players.
In
Italy's opening match of the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Italy played Chile. Italy's first goal was
scored by Christian
Vieri on an assist by Baggio. Towards the end of the game a Baggio cross
touched Chilean defender Ronald Fuentes' hand, resulting in a penalty
scored by Baggio which made the score 2–2. With this goal, he became the first
Italian player to score in three World Cups. Baggio scored two goals in the
tournament; he also scored the winning goal against Austria as Italy
topped their group. Baggio played in 16 World Cup matches for Italy. Ireland is
the only team against which Baggio played more than once in his 16 games of
FIFA World Cup play. He is the highest Italian goalscorer of all-time in the
World Cup, with 9 goals from 16 appearances (along with Rossi and Vieri). But
Baggio is the only Italian to have scored in three World Cups. Baggio has
scored 87 percent of his penalties in Serie A and International football,
scoring 106 out of 122 penalties, more than any other player in Italian
football history.
In
the quarter-final match against France, Baggio came on as a substitute in
the second half. The score remained 0–0 and the match went to a penalty
shootout won by the
host nation. Italy's coach, Cesare Maldini has since been severely
criticised for starting Del Piero ahead of Baggio, who was in the better form,
for the quarter-final match against France. Cesare Maldini later apologized to Baggio for
not giving him the playing time he deserved. Baggio, formerly a Roman Catholic,
practices Nichiren Buddhism and
is a member of the Soka Gakkai International Buddhist organization.
When
Baggio was in the national team, Italy always left the World Cup at penalties:
in 1990 against Argentina, in 1994 against Brazil, and in 1998 against France.
Therefore, in the 16 world cup matches he played, Italy lost only one, which
was Italy's opening game of USA 94 against Ireland. Baggio was given an international
send-off match on 28 April 2004 against Spain. He was invited to play for the
European XI at the Football for Hope Indian Ocean tsunami relief benefit on 15 February 2005
at the Camp Nou in Barcelona,
but he declined the invitation.
Baggio
wrote an autobiography titled Una porta nel cielo ("A Goal in
the Sky", but also "A Gate in the Sky"), including details about
his rifts with managers. On 16 October 2002, Roberto Baggio was
nominated Goodwill Ambassador of
the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). On his 40th birthday (18 February
2007), Baggio started his new website to converse with his fans. As per his
website he does not intend to return to mainstream football, but rather
exchange words with his fans on his blogs.