Euroscene/Paddy Agnew: Twenty years and 400 Serie A games later, the "Little Prince" is still trucking.
There were just three minutes of normal time left in Brescia's home game against Como on Sunday, when the familiar, diminutive figure of Roberto Baggio stepped up to knock home a penalty that gave relegation battlers Brescia a badly-needed point.
Now in his 21st season as a professional footballer, Roberto Baggio is still alive and well and, what is more, making plans for his footballing future. Even though he will be 36 next February, Baggio does not appear to be thinking about life after football. For the time being, the word "retirement" is not part of his vocabulary.
On the contrary, when asked about his future aims and objectives, Baggio delivers a tantilising answer, half in jest but at the same time revealing: "Well, considering that in all my long career, for one reason or another, I've never managed to play at a European Championship finals competition." To anyone other than Baggio himself, the idea that he might play for Italy at Euro 2004 in Portugal at the ripe old age of 37 is simply well-meaning science fiction. Yet, even if he fails to realise that ambitious target, (mind you, Italy must first qualify for the tournament, something not yet to be taken for granted in the light of recent events) Baggio has already proved his point about physical durability and mental toughness.
When he went down with a blisteringly painful cruciate ligament tear in his left knee in an Italian Cup semi-final tie against Parma on January 31st this year, many of us immediately wondered if the time had come to dust off the long-since, oft-rewritten Baggio "end-of-career" piece. After all, that most recent injury came exactly 20 years after his first knee operation, for a cartilege problem.
Twenty years, four major knee operations, seven clubs (Vicenza, Fiorentina, Juventus, AC Milan, Bologna, Inter Milan, Brescia) and three World Cups (1990, 1994 & 1998) later, surely the time had come to opt for the easy life.
Unlike less talented colleagues, too, Baggio could easily afford to chuck it all in tomorrow since he is a millionaire several times over.
Money, though, is not the only motivation. Baggio had had a well-documented and much publicised dream, namely to make it to the South Korea and Japan World Cup finals and probably finish off his career there.
To achieve this, he required two semi-miracles. Firstly, he needed to travel the long and winding road from the operating theatre back to full fitness in less than three months. Secondly, he required Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni to give him an international call-up.
Remarkably, Baggio pulled off the first minor miracle. By the end of April he was back on the pitch, coming on as a late substitute to score two against Fiorentina. However coach Trapattoni, blessed with an apparent abundance of attacking talent, overlooked him, depriving millions of sentimental Baggio fans of a perfect happy ending. Keep on dreaming, Roberto Baggio.
