Roberto Baggio
| ● The file | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1967, Caldogno, Italy |
| Golden Ball | 1993 — the classic era's final winner |
| World Cup 1994 | 5 knockout goals, from hero to the missed final penalty |
| Cost | The most expensive player in the world, 1990 |
Baggio's 1993 Ballon d'Or rewarded the season he carried Juventus to the UEFA Cup almost alone and re-defined what a fantasista could be in the era of pressing: a forward who thought three touches ahead of the defence, receiving in impossible spaces and releasing the game's geometry from angles nobody else had noticed. The Buddha's serenity in the tackle, a Buddhist himself in Catholic Italy, he played like a man translating the game into something quieter and more exact.
Then came 1994: the World Cup in America, Baggio dragging a defensive Italy through the knockouts — five goals in three games, every one decisive — and the final in Pasadena, the exhaustion, and the penalty that rose over the crossbar and settled onto his shoulders for the rest of his life. He scored 318 club goals for seven clubs and is remembered for one miss: the award's history contains no more Italian a story, because no football nation keeps tragedy's books like Italy.