EUROSCENE:With the World Cup finals just five weeks away, you might expect Italian fans to be obsessed with everything other than an often crocked, greying and diminutive 35-year-old. Yet, the "old-timer", in question, just happens to be called Roberto Baggio and when he staged yet another comeback from injury to score two goals in Brescia's 3-0 defeat of Fiorentina on Sunday, half of Italy got to its feet to shout "Hallelujah".
The Little Prince of Italian soccer has long been not only the best known Italian footballer in the world but also one of the most popular in his native land. His seemingly endless battles with injury (usually his knees) and with Serie A coaches (Marcello Lippi, above all) have won him endless sympathy from Italians instinctively attracted to his skills.
Four years ago, Baggio defied his knees and conventional wisdom by winning a World Cup squad place from the relatively quiet, Serie A backwaters of Bologna. To the astonishment of many, last autumn Baggio declared his intention to stage a repeat performance, from the provincial base of Brescia.
As a farewell to football, he wanted to realise the dream of playing in his fourth consecutive World Cup finals tournament. After a brilliant start to the season that saw him score eight goals in eight games, however, injury struck, first in October and then, heartbreakingly, on January 31st in his second "comeback" game.
That second injury (a cruciate knee ligament), picked up in an Italian Cup game versus Parma, seemed to bring down the curtain, if not on Baggio's remarkable career, at least on his World Cup aspirations. What a pity, commented the critics. What a let-off for Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni who for most of this season has run the gauntlet of questions about Baggio.
This week, however, Trapattoni's Baggio headache is back. Partly for sentimental reasons and partly because of an irresistible attraction to his blend of class, footballing intelligence and physical frailty, the majority of Italian football fans want him included in Trapattoni's 23-man squad for the finals.
On the eve of last Wednesday's 1-1 friendly draw in Milan with Uruguay, Trapattoni appeared to definitively close the door on Baggio when saying: "Baggio has been injured for a long time and nature has got to take its course. I cannot take such a risk, at least I don't feel I can. I simply cannot count on Roberto Baggio, I can't gamble on him."
Baggio, in his usual diplomatic way, acknowledged the legitimacy of Trapattoni's viewpoint, telling reporters: "Trapattoni is right. I mean, what would you do in his position?"
Those words, of course, were uttered before Sunday's 70th-minute, dramatic entrance as a substitute. As he stood at the touchline, waiting to come on, Brescia's acting captain, Spain's Pep Guardiola, ran over and handed him the captain's armband as a "welcome back" gesture.
Three minutes later, Baggio gave himself an even more effective "welcome back" present when he not only initiated but also finished off the movement which saw him score Brescia's second goal. Neither that effort nor his second goal of the day in the 86th minute were vintage Baggio efforts, since both owed more to goal line opportunism than craft.
Yet, both goals are certain to weigh heavily. If Baggio gains in fitness then rest assured the pro-Baggio lobby will be bearing down hard on Trapattoni.
In the meantime, Baggio can concentrate on his next game away to Juventus on Sunday's second last day of the season. With wicked irony, that match offers him the chance not only to put further pressure on Trapattoni but also to put a spanner in the works of a second-placed Juventus side, who are just one point behind leaders Inter Milan.
Juventus, of course, are the side that rejected him in the mid-1990s and are coached by Marcello Lippi, the man who rejected him twice, first at Juventus and later at Inter Milan. Whoever said revenge cannot be sweet?
