Written by Matteo Ciaramella
The tale is as old as time itself.
Player X is a young, promising footballer – a starboy. The raw talent is there, perceptible and almost tangible. Everyone around him knows that they are witnessing greatness in the making. His performances for the local small team attract a bigger club, ready to pay serious money to secure his talents. The deal goes through, and Player X starts his climb through the ranks of professional football. Under the shining lights of the big leagues, he gets more noticed and his fame rises. He improves with every touch of the ball, every pass, and every goal scored. Now, his face is recognizable and his talent undeniable. Naturally, what comes next is the career-defining move – the big move. Player X joins one of the best clubs in the world and becomes a global superstar. His name shines bright and his career blows up, reaching its peak and prime. A few years like this are enough to cement Player X as a legend for decades to come, after which he can calmly begin his decline. He gradually loses his form, going from great, to good, to okay, mediocre, and finally null. Nothing left to do but retire. The football world thanks him, as he rides off into the sunset to enjoy post-footballer life.
The typical trajectory of a football superstar.
Player X is one of many. Roberto Baggio, however, is not.
Roberto Baggio began his professional career at only 15 years old, playing for his hometown team Vicenza in the third Italian tier. After making his debut at 16, Baggio’s name quickly spread and before long, Serie A club Fiorentina came knocking. The move came with hype and anticipation, as the entire country eagerly awaited ‘the next big thing’ to break through and become a star. After two injury-ridden years, Roberto Baggio would start making some noise in 1987-1988 and have his breakout season in 1988-1989. His career officially took off, and after another great campaign in 1989-1990, Baggio moved to giants Juventus. The next 5 years for Baggio would cement him as one of the best players in the world. His 1993 Ballon d’Or and 1994 World Cup performances granted him ‘legend’ status both at the national and international level, and aged 28, he was ready to progressively start taking his foot off the gas pedal, making way for a new generation. He left Juventus in 1995, bouncing around Serie A, and although he momentarily regained his form for the 1997-1998 season at Bologna, Baggio’s career was as good as over by 2000. Two disappointing years at Inter Milan left him a free agent at 33 years old and not one club showed interest in signing him. Up until then, Roberto Baggio’s career looked exactly like Player X’s: a predictable journey, about to come to an end. That is, until Brescia laid their eyes on the former star.
After promotion to Serie A, small side Brescia needed experience, talent, and quality. Despite being injury-prone, Baggio fit that description seamlessly. The move was executed at lightning speed, and Baggio went from the glamorous scenes of Milan to the narrow streets of Brescia overnight.
Unexpectedly to many in the Italian football scene, this match was made in heaven.
A curious, peculiar, and truthfully, unexpected transfer – what was really behind it?
Baggio’s love story with Brescia has two sides. You have Brescia’s perspective, a club that wanted to prove its worth with the big boys of Serie A and show Italy that they did not get promoted just to immediately go back to Serie B. They were here to stay. Then there is Baggio’s position, which runs a little deeper and is a lot more complicated. In order to fully understand his decision, we need to take a look at his career again, this time with heavy focus on the Italian national team.
Baggio took his first steps as an Azzurri player in 1988, and slowly started to gain a spot in the starting XI. By the dawn of the 1990 World Cup, he was a bona fide starter. He scored two goals in that tournament, the first of which, against Czechoslovakia, is regarded as one of the finest in World Cup history. Soon thereafter, Baggio would become the focal point of that team, scoring goals left right and center en route to the 1994 World Cup – a tournament that would define Baggio’s career forever.
Italy approached that World Cup with a star-studded team. Aside from the usual names like Maldini, Signori, Baresi, the Italian national team could boast Baggio himself – considered to be the best player in the world at the time – and Arrigo Sacchi – Baggio’s equivalent as a coach. The pairing of the two, however, would prove to be Italy’s biggest weakness.
You see, Sacchi’s football revolved around a 4-4-2 where the team participated in the attack as a whole, — Baggio, on the other hand, wanted the keys to the offense and direct every attack with his creativity. As a result, the two clashed constantly, with the climax of the feud coming in the second game against Norway. Sacchi needed to sub off a field player to make way for goalkeeper Marchegiani, and to the disbelief of the entire football world, he chose Baggio. Baggio thrived when he felt like he was the absolute centerpiece of his team, and Sacchi had taken all of that away from him on the highest stage. Coach and star were coach and star no longer – they were enemies.
Italy barely managed to get into the knockout round, with Baggio and Sacchi’s dispute at an all-time high. The coach insisted with his 4-4-2 formation, playing Baggio out of position as a striker. The Round of 16 match-up against Nigeria turned out to be an extremely hard-fought, bloody game for Italy, who were 2 minutes away from being eliminated on a 1-0 scoreline. But in the 88th minute, after being largely absent and unrecognizable for the first 3 games, Baggio burst onto the scene and finally found his form back. Something had simply clicked. A wonder-strike from the star allowed Italy to equalize and carry the game into extra time, where Baggio officially ended Nigeria’s hope with a calm penalty.
Italy were through.
Baggio was the undisputed hero. That feeling was all he needed to never look back, and completely change the narrative of that tournament.
His performances at the 1994 World Cup knockout rounds are nothing short of legendary. Everyone knew that they were witnessing history. Goal against Spain, brace against Bulgaria: Italy were through to the final.
Who awaited them? The mighty Brazil.
Baggio had suffered a minor injury in the semi-finals, and was all but fully fit for the deciding game. Nevertheless, he started. The game presented itself as very balanced, with both teams having their chances to score. Baggio, despite his condition, could have ended the game himself, but be it for that day’s heat, pressure, or his injury, he did not take his chances. The game went into overtime, and then penalties.
Here, as many know, Baggio missed the deciding kick, thanks to which the Brazilian team finally came away with the win.
Baggio was nicknamed “the man that died standing” and the miss would haunt him for the rest of his career. After returning to club football, he was simply not the same: he had lost his confidence and brilliance, dishing out disappointing performances one after the other. Juventus had no choice but to let him go in 1995. As you may remember, this is where Baggio’s decline started and his injuries worsened. For the 1996 Euros, in an effort to show the world that the collective should be above individuality, Sacchi left out Baggio for the final squad, effectively shattering the rapport between the two. Baggio did come back to the national team for the ‘98 World Cup (which did not feature Sacchi on the bench), though that also ended in heartbreaking fashion. By the 2000 Euros, Baggio was an afterthought for the national team, but that penalty miss – at least for Baggio – still was not. As revealed in his documentary, he dwelled on it day and night, regretting the excessive power he put on it. He had failed to deliver a World Cup, and it killed him to know that he was running out of chances to do so. Out of club and unemployed, when Brescia came after him in the summer of 2000, he saw them as his last resort to get back on the Azzurri’s radar and deliver what he had shockingly given up 6 years earlier. He wanted to make the 2002 World Cup squad. This, ultimately, was the main reason behind Baggio’s decision to move to Brescia.
So you had two ambitious entities, ready to show the football world that they too had a say in it. In desperate need for recognition and success, it was only natural for Baggio and Brescia to begin a new chapter – together.
If you have read the Bomber di Provincia article, you understand what it means to a small team when they have an excellent player in their midst. For the fans, players, and the organization as a whole, a Bomber di Provincia is a leader and source of inspiration: one that drags the team through the mud and puts it on the map. Baggio was exactly that for Brescia, but to the 100th power. Why? Because a Bomber di Provincia is a merely good player playing on a small team. Baggio, on the other hand, was a global superstar, one of the biggest names in football, and the most loved player in Italy. His arrival to Brescia left the fans flabbergasted as excitement was palpable in the streets of Brescia.
Brescia have always been a small team by Serie A standards, spending most of their existence in the Serie B, the second tier, and occasionally falling to Serie C. In short, Serie A promotion is generally rare for Brescia, and when teams like this make it to the top tier of Italian football, they usually cannot afford to play beautiful, possession-driven or attacking football. Brescia, at least in Serie A, are forced to defend themselves, park the bus, and pray on the opponent slipping up. A scrappy, and at times ugly playing style characterized the team for much of its existence. There had never been a player at Brescia that remotely resembled Baggio’s flair and technical abilities, and no one could even dream of coming close to him in terms of greatness.
With Baggio, Brescia fans – for the first time in their lives – could watch their team play mesmerizing football. Brescia enchanted its supporters and the city, with Baggio’s talent exploding every time he stepped onto the pitch. He let his abilities run wild and free, as he seemed to be constantly inventing new ways to caress and strike the ball, while opponents could only stand by and watch a master at work. With him, Brescia fans quickly got accustomed to seeing the beauty of the beautiful game. In hindsight, this is probably why he is still so fondly remembered.
You can dig up the old Calcio archives, look through Brescia’s performances season by season, check every player who has ever played for them and their stats. Whatever and whoever you may find, however, will never compare to the greatness of Roberto Baggio.
After decades of misery, Brescia were finally a feared team. In Baggio’s four years there, they finished 8th, 13th, 9th, and 11th, challenging for UEFA Cup qualification on two separate occasions. The 2000-2004 stretch was without a doubt Brescia’s golden age, and much to Baggio’s pleasure, he was at the center of it all. He dazzled, he created, he scored. In a 4-4-1-1 where he acted as a second striker and advanced playmaker, Baggio netted 46 goals and assisted just under 30 in 101 appearances.
Baggio helped Brescia show Italy that they had come to Serie A to stay, while also proving to the world that Roberto Baggio was still Roberto Baggio. By the end of his first season (2000-2001), the feeling was that maybe, just maybe, he would be able to snatch a national team call-up after all.
2001-2002 came with great anticipation: everyone in Brescia was excited to build on the previous season’s spectacular 8th place finish. Baggio wanted to keep proving himself at a high level and confirm that he was worthy of taking part in the upcoming World Cup. It is not a coincidence that his individual start to the season is probably one of the best we have ever seen, as he went on to score 8 goals in his first 9 games. He had one thing in mind and it was obvious – his determination and drive were discernible by all. The entirety of Italy was behind him, cheering for their national idol to make a glorious comeback and take them to the promised land.
But then, tragedy struck in January. Baggio’s knee – for the 5th time in his career – gave up on him.
Torn ACL.
But as you’ve learnt throughout the article, Baggio is not one to give up. “The Divine Ponytail” made the recovery in an unheard, unbelievable 81 days. The people of Brescia cheered him on, and helped immensely with the transition back to the pitch. With their star away, the team had plummeted to the bottom of the table and become relegation candidates. However, as fate would have it, Baggio’s first game back was marked by his brace – one that would eventually prove absolutely crucial for escaping relegation. In a time of need for both sides, Baggio and Brescia were there for each other, proving that this relationship transcended mutual benefit and comfortably ventured into romanticism.
If you believe that a staggeringly quick recovery from an ACL tear, topped with a brace on his very first game back, should have been enough for Baggio to be called up, you would represent the thoughts of all Italians in 2002. But, not everything in life works out the way it is supposed to. Citing health concerns, national team manager Giovanni Trapattoni left out Baggio’s name from the 23-man squad that he would take to the World Cup, causing mass outrage and shock. The people, regardless of their team of support, yearned to see Baggio take the field with their national team one last time. He embodied the idea of the elegant, enviable, as well as relentless and determined aura of 1990s Italian football, and it was only right for him to have a sweet end to his career for Italy. With this decision, Baggio’s playing days for the Azzurri came to a definitive (barring his farewell game in 2004) end.
It is worth noting that Baggio played alongside Andrea Pirlo and Luca Toni at Brescia – two of the most crucial players in Italy’s triumphant 2006 World Cup campaign. He was their mentor and they were his mentees. I like to think that despite not making the 2002 World Cup team and retiring 2 years before the 2006 tournament, Baggio still indirectly helped the national team one last time, confirming once and for all that he was and always will be a hero to the Italian people.
Baggio’s years at Brescia did not go by in vain. There, he was able to restore his love for football, and bring the beautiful side of the game to a city that had never seen it before. He took off the shiny armor of a global star and traded it for the snug duvet of a cult hero, understanding for the first time what it meant to be truly loved, cherished, and pampered by fans. Brescia supporters gave him their all like no other big team fan base had ever done, and he did the same for them, despite his injuries and age.
Brescia may not have been the most prestigious team, and Baggio may not have been the star he used to be, but the two thrived together because those who have less always give the most.
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