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On March 14th, an event that fans had long awaited finally happened. The 37-year-old "Uodegėlė" ("Tail"), widely considered the third best footballer in Italy's Serie A history after Pele and Maradona, scored his 200th goal in Serie A competition.
Baggio became only the fifth player in this league to reach this milestone. The other four of his colleagues - from a fairly distant past: Silvio Piola, Gunnar Nordahl, Giuseppe Meazza, and Jose Altafini. Furthermore, the first four "centurions" were true forwards, while Baggio - a "trequartista" - a position called "behind the forwards" in Italy. From the still active elite European leagues, only [missing information] managed to achieve this without him.
Roberto scored his milestone goal in the 25th round of matches against [missing information]. It was his 443rd Serie A match (17th in this season). The goal was scored in his style: receiving the ball on the edge of the penalty area, he expertly dribbled past a "Parma" defender, then shifted the ball to his left and struck it with a jeweler's precision into the bottom corner. A kind of billiard shot in football. Despite "Parma" losing the victory due to this goal (Baggio leveled the score to 2-2 in the 74th minute), its players warmly congratulated the football virtuoso on this achievement.
"The way Baggio scored his 200th goal evokes regret. Regret that such football is fading into the past, making way for muscles and stimulators. And regret that a master, still capable of displaying such mastery, is preparing to end his career," writes "La Gazzetta dello Sport."
"Unfortunately, I have made the decision to leave at the end of this season," said "Codino" in the light of the event. "Although this decision is very difficult. With great reluctance, I think about retiring, but it is necessary to think about it. I still enjoy playing, but it is increasingly overshadowed by unpleasant physical feelings. The body sends many painful signals. What can I do - I have had six operations!"
200 goals and the burden of 22 years of great football is heavy, but a large group of Baggio fans still hopes that he, even though all bruised, will change his mind and extend his career, even if briefly. Whether not in the club, not in Italy, but somewhere else.
At the end of February, the same "Gazzetta" reported an original proposal that seemingly came from [missing information]. The latter club, having distanced itself from the pursuers in its championship by a huge margin, believed that a place in the Champions League was already in its pocket. And they were planning to hire the Italian maestro for the most prestigious European football tournament.
The essence of the proposal was as follows: Baggio would arrive at "Anderlecht" only the day before the Champions League matches, participate in the final training session with the players, and then be free to leave immediately after the matches. He could spend the rest of the time wherever he wanted ("Uodegėlė" likes to train in his hometown of Caldogno). The form of payment was a fee for each match.
There were clubs in the past that had used this practice of hiring a player for individual matches. In this way, the Saudi Arabian club "Al-Nasr" should be very grateful to Hristo Stoichkov for being the first participant in the World Club Championship in 2000. Already in 1998, "Al-Nasr" hired him for two weeks, paying $200,000. The fee turned out to be significantly too high: after all, the legionnaire only had to play in three matches - two Asian Cup semi-finals and the final of this cup. But the effect was stunning: Stoichkov scored the only goal in the final match against the South Korean club "Samsung Blue Wings," which later won the Asian Super Cup and became the only Asian team in the first club World Cup.
There was also a questionable decision made by the Brazilian club "Gremio" when competing for the Intercontinental Cup in 1997 with Dortmund. "Gremio" took advantage of the fact that 18 out of 26 Brazilian first-division clubs had already finished their performances in the national championship. Their players' season had already ended.
The cunning "Gremio" managers came up with a plan to hire some of them - Bebeto from "Vitoria," Donisete from "Corinthians," and Gonsalves from "Botafogo" - for just one match in Tokyo. From an ethical point of view, this maneuver looked dubious, and not all the players who were offered to become players of another team for one day agreed to do so.
In the end, this "Gremio" trick failed. The Dortmund team still won 2-0.
Returning to Baggio, "Anderlecht" not only did not confirm the report from "Gazzetta" but also denied having any negotiations with Baggio: "A player of Roberto Baggio's age, whose achievements we highly respect, does not fit our club's strategy."
Jose Altafini was the last to surpass Baggio in Serie A with 200 goals. And this happened almost three decades ago. He, along with Baggio, is the only living author of this achievement. "I wish Baggio continued to score. It is important that he stops at 215 goals," jokes the 1958 World Champion in Brazil's national team, with 216 goals to his name.
Arrigo Sacchi also expressed his belief that "Uodegėlė" should continue his career: "Baggio is the most amazing player, and he deserves all the credit to be among the best forwards. The only flaw in this player is that he considers his team's coach his personal coach. This trait of his caused a conflict between us at one time. Do you remember the critical episode in the 1994 World Cup when we lost to Norway and ?? Because of an expulsion we lost ? I decided to sacrifice Baggio because at that time I needed powerful and strong players. From that moment on, our relationship unfortunately did not develop."
When asked what he would do after finishing his career, Baggio replied, "At first, I will distance myself from football. I will go hunting in Argentina, take care of some business for which I have not had time to sit down due to football for many years. And then - we will see."
However, when asked the classic question of which of the two hundred goals he considers the most beautiful, Roberto couldn't answer, noting that it could be a goal scored from the center of the field. Similar to the one once scored by Maradona (in a match between "Napoli" and "Verona"). But such a goal is missing from Baggio's collection.
Instead of figuring out which of his league goals is the most beautiful, "La Gazzetta dello Sport" took on the task. It turned out that most fans prefer the one Roberto scored on September 17, 1989, in a match between "Napoli" and "Fiorentina" (2-3), deceiving half of the opposing team. It was also a trick in Maradona's style, created against the team he was playing for at the time. The match took place at the "Napoli" stadium.
The scoring of Baggio's Serie A goals began similarly in Naples. This happened on May 10, 1987, when "Napoli" was already celebrating its first-ever championship title. Baggio outwitted Maradona's team goalkeeper after a penalty shot.
He enjoyed creating his masterpieces against top clubs. It's no wonder that the rankings of the most beautiful goals he scored included those against superclubs. The second place went to a fantastic goal against "Milan" at San Siro Stadium in the same year (1987) when "Fiorentina" won 2-0. Once again, half of the opposing team was left behind, and this time Baggio did not just hit the ball into the net but went in together with it after pulling off a beautiful trick to make the goalkeeper sit on the grass.
Having become a player of "Uodegėlė" in 1993, on April 18, he scored a crucial goal against "Milan" (3-1), deceiving Franco Baresi excellently on the right flank and leaving no chances for goalkeeper Sebastiano Rossi with a left-footed shot. At the same time in Udine, he slalomed from the center of the field, "dribbled" three opponents, and hit the goal practically from a zero angle - finding a narrow gap between the near post and goalkeeper Battistini.
In short, the respondents of "Gazzetta" had a lot to remember. And now we will watch a new attempt to storm the "200 goals summit," in Baggio's footsteps, attempted by [missing information]. He is a few years younger than Roberto but his level of play has noticeably declined. Beppe-gol is striving for this summit with all his might, being only 14 goals away, and we would like to wish him good luck. It is probably too early to write off 35-year-old Gabriel Batistuta (184 goals), who, after the end of his contract with a Qatari club in the summer of 2005, could return to "Fiorentina" (if the latter returns to Serie A).
