Reading that felt therapeutic Speaking of Brescia, I really liked that team. Mazzone gave Baggio the freedom he needed. He was about 25 years too early for Italian football.
Look at the sublime control. Is that Pirlo sending the ball over top to him? Great goal. Totti couldn't shine Baggio's practice cleats!! @NickyViola were you following the Viola back in the days Baggio played for them?
As much as I could. I would watch whatever Serie A game was on in the lounge of the Regency Intercontinental in Bahrain, where I was stationed. Saw him for Fiorentina several, though not dozens, times. We lost this one and it's between clubs whose fans live in Rivalry Thread A but it's worth watching for his incredible goal and for Diego, the best player I ever saw.
I remember that goal. It was around the time I started watching games more regularly in Serie A. IIRC it was after that game that Maradona said Baggio was his rightful heir. Can you still hate a player that great when he leaves for a bug club though?
there must be an error because i am tagged here but glorious cagliari (the prestigious team any cool person would wish to be a fan of) is not on the list. some thoughts on this thread. 1. cagliari is not irrelevant, at least in my opinion and my opinion is very relevant to me. 2. there's no rivalry with any of these teams apart from, maybe, milan. I personally feel no real rivalry with any team (and/or their fans). I would want my team to beat them all and humiliate them on the field but with benevolent compassion. 3. ok I'll admit I tend to root for anyone who are playing Gobbentus. But I amend this bad will towards the old bagascia (the team sore losers choose to root for when little children) by rooting for them when they play a non italian team. 4. the end of the world is coming, become cagliari fans and repent
Time flies so fast. I believe that was Baggio's first goal ever for Fiorentina. Seeing all those names is almost bittersweet and brought a tear to my eyes. Renica, Careca, Diego etc. Seeing Paolo Valenti & Giuliano Giuliani (RIP) was special. Ironically in that video , Landucci saves a pk from Maradona and this week, he is fired as Milan's GK coach along with Allegri. Who would have thought that Baggio would turn into what he became. In my opinion the greatest Italian player of all time. Still can't believe how or why he was treated the way he was. Made no sense then and even less sense now.
http://goaldentimes.org/2012/07/06/roberto-baggio-and-the-essence-of-buddhism/ "But the world turned upside down for the mercurial genius with one penalty kick that virtually transformed him to an anti-hero from a superhero. There were even talks that if he would have been a Christian he would not have missed that penalty. Baggio took all that in his stride silently and he later said that his Buddhist values had made him handle his toughest days with serenity. He was saddened by the fact that before him two of his other team-mates had also missed penalties in the shoot-out and even if he had scored, an Italian victory was not assured as a Brazilian was supposed to take the next kick. Yet he was tagged as “The Man who cost Italy the World Cup”. Sadly, very few failed to even think for a minute that without Baggio, Italy would not have ever reached the finals. Such is life: it takes a second to wipe out years of earned respect, pride and prestige."
That pk miss is overrated. Brazil had already been up 3-2 in the rotation. I was at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena that day and no one ever talks about the fact that Franco Baresi and Daniele Massaro missed their kicks. Bebeto was Brazi's next pk taker after Baggio and had he made it (which is pretty likely) , Italy would have lost just the same. Again, it was overblown.
Yes in the quote I took from that stats that? But do you think this miss and his religious beliefs played some part in his career from that part? He never seemed to have the love or confidence of magement at the bigger sides
He probably would have converted just the same. Sounds like some journalist blowing smoke to me. I do think his religion may have helped him keep him more disciplined. I mean unlike Cassano, Totti or even Del Piero, I never heard or read too much complaining from Baggio publicly about being benched. I mean he was pissed off at Sacchi, Lippi, Capello and Ulivieri but its not like I heard or read to much from him in the media and he didn't really ridicule any of them in the press. The first and last piece I read from Baggio was when he wrote his book in 2001 and he talked about Lippi and Marcello wanted to sue him but Gianni Agnelli talked him out of it.
Respectfully disagree. Roberto Baggio was the greatest Italian player that I have ever watched but he is not the greatest Italian player of all time. That would be Giuseppe Meazza. And it is not even close.
Possibly and historically you may have a point but that was a different time and the game has changed in every aspect. A lot of people use to say Gigi Riva was the greatest also but couldn't shoot with his right. Not sure if that happens too much anymore. Players are much different and better post WW2 and even from 1980 onward. You can not compare the Italia 34 & 38 to the 2006 team just like you can not compare them to the 1982 team. For that matter, the Grande Torino to any of the great Milan or Juventus teams of the 80's & 90's. Unless you are over 85 years of age, I seriously doubt anyone can honestly say they ever saw Meazza play.
My grandfather saw both play and he said Meazza is the best player he ever saw. He said that Meazza was the best player in the best Italian group in the late 1930s. He said that Meazza would dribble with the ball from the half way line, past the entire opposition team and then feint a shot then round the goalkeeper and slot the ball into the net. That was his trademark. "Finte alla Meazza" comes from this.
But they played differently with like 3 defenders and 2 mids and 5 forwards. You can say Attilio Ferraris IV was also one of the greatest mids and Raimundo Orsi or Giovanni Ferrari the greatest forwards too. For that matter Virgino Rosetta and Gigi Allemandi who were the best wing backs at that time but they were in no way near or comparable to Paolo Maldini. You can not compare GK's Gianpiero Combi to Dino Zoff just like you can't compare Dino to Gigi Buffon. Again it was a different time.
I understand your point although I am not going to go against my grandfather's word. People place too much emphasis on modern players because they are players that they have seen and quantify. In fifty years time do you think the generation then will still talk of Baggio as one of the top five Italian players ever? I would not bet on it but I would hope so. And speaking of Combi, did not Meazza win the bet with him?! A gentleman's wager?
The younger generation on this board alone hardly remember or appreciate anything Baggio ever did either. This is why its difficult to compare eras in my opinion. On the other hand, comparing Paolo Maldini to Cesare, Paolo wins hands down. Comparing Daniele Conti to Bruno, I think Bruno Conti was one of the greatest of all times too but Daniele is a good player but not like his dad. Of course none of this belongs in the rivalry thread....
I agree it is diffucult to compare players from different era's because the game changes over time. Great players last in the memory because of the legacy they leave. Meazza leaves a great legacy. He led Italy to two World Cups and Ambrosiana against a dominant Juventus. A stadium is named after him. Parts of the game and fantastic goals are named in reference to him. The fact the younger generation hardly remembers Baggio is insulting but hadly suprising. I think most will now cruelly remember him for missing that penalty kick and the blame for that lies with the media for blowing it out of proportion. This thread serves no real purpose. There is already a rivalry thread but this is not really a rivalry thread.
It was created as a troll/joke thread, but has now taken a life of it's own evolving into a gossip thread and now a nostalgia thread Baggio butted heads with coaches who wanted authoritarian regimes, unlike Cassano Baggio was able to revolt quietly enough to win his teammates over, often causing problems with his respective coaches tactical plans. We saw this in the 94 world cup and he wrote about it in his book. Mazzone was one of the few who let Baggio do what he wanted. With this you can understand why, when you've seen say both Baggio and Totti, you wouldn't say Totti is better, for example. Those who have only watched Totti in the modern day might try the argument that Totti is better because he played in a more modern game, if that even matters. I've heard many an old school dude say that Meazza was better than Baggio. I can't comment. Of the two I've only seen Baggio.