ADP was awesome in his prime. I'm hardly a fan of his but his talent was undeniable. You can't really go around comparing too many guys to Baggio, though. Baggio was legendary.
My point exactly. Nearly impossible to follow a legend and meet expectations. ADP never had a chance at being the next Baggio and got labled a "no show" in the big matches for not living up to the standard Roby set. He was still a great player for us and for juvemerda.
People forget about Baggio's awful knee injury very early in his career. It's mind boggling to imagine him being more magical than he was, but one can only wonder what it would have been like...
It's hard to take people who call the offseason All-Star events the "big matches" seriously, in my opinion.
For someone who is as knowledgeable as you are, it makes me laugh when you put out something that only you understand. Who said offseason all-star events were big matches? They suck worse than amercian football preseason games.
You did when you implied (or at least I thought you were implying) that his Azzurri matches were his "big matches." He has done well in big matches for his club so I had assumed that you were referring to WC and Euros. If you weren't, then my apologies.
Majority of his goals are free kicks or penalties nowadays. He cant dribble past players anymore.If Italy didnt have Pirlo in world cup 2010 maybe he would have been called. Anyway, he had his chances and he had them enough. He played 7(euro 96 to euro 2008) ********in tournaments and only has 3 goals to show for.I still recall how he wasted euro 2000 for italy vs france. And cesare maldini made the big mistake of benching baggio for del piero vs france in WC 98. Him, and Totti been great on club level but on NT level they didnt meet high expectations.
I disagree, ADP should be a starter on the National Team for at least another ten years, even if he retires from club football. His contributions to the Azzurri are immeasurable and just his presence on the field alone is enough to inspire the new NT to another Euro, WC, Olympic gold medal and dare I say, even a Confederations Cup. ADP fo-eva yo.
tell you want, I would have rather have had ADP in South Africa than Iaquinta, Gilardino and some of the other crap we took.