How Roberto Baggio Spent His 50th Birthday

2/20/2017

Roberto Baggio drew attention with public acts of great imagination but that is long over.

He was a relatively simple person who could stun a stadium, a nation, with sudden feats -- a gift, a blessing, like the goal from nowhere that saved Italy in the 89th minute against Nigeria in 1994.

Now, says the convert to Buddhism, life is a daily search for happiness. For his 50th birthday, he did not need glamour, but instead he made a trip to the region of Italy struck by a monstrous earthquake last Aug. 24, and brutally shocked again recently. He saw devastated buildings and disrupted people.

Baggio stood impassively when he botched his penalty kick to end the 1994 World Cup final against Brazil. That was terrible, of course, but he did not make operatic gesticulations, and did not bring up the hamstring that Bulgaria had pounded in the semifinal. The earthquakes are real life.

Baggio does not coach, does not seek the spotlight in the big cities; he gave up his familiar ponytail when his hair became predominately gray. He does not haunt his old squads like Juventus and AC Milan (where he helped win Serie A championships.)

He is a paradox – a Buddhist who likes to hunt small game. (A good friend of mine has Baggio’s voice on his cellphone, asking if a certain piece of equipment might be found in a sporting goods store in the Stati Uniti.)

And for his 50th birthday he chose to visit Amatrice. At one point he said he would like to see what can be done.The video will show an inner-directed man clearly suffering as he walks through the broken town, and then he cries and cannot speak anymore.
* * *
Of course, Baggio’s 50th birthday was not forgotten. Perhaps the sweetest tribute came from Alessandro Del Piero, who played with Baggio for two seasons at Juventus, and replaced him as artist-in-residence for the Azzurri.

What a string of brilliance, from Il Divin Codino (The Divine Ponytail) to Il Pinturicchio (an Italian painter.) They scored goals and they assisted on goals and they played for the best squads in the generation-plus when Serie A was undisputedly the best league in the world.

I don’t think I have ever read a more beautiful tribute from one athlete to another:
http://www.alessandrodelpiero.com/news/buon-compleanno-roby_541.html

Baggio and Del Piero both suffered insults from the Juve owner, Gianni Agnelli:

In 1994, Agnelli described Baggio as “a wet rabbit” after a poor performance against Mexico. But Agnelli later compared the master Baggio to the young Del Piero as Raphael against a lesser painter of small stature (Il Pinturriccio.) It’s nice to be the boss.

Baggio and Del Piero had so much more in common – the No. 10, the genius, the awareness, the modesty. Seeing them photographed together gives me shivers of memory, from their long reign of artistry.

Baggio and Del Piero/ Grazie, La Gazzetta dello Sport

Andy Tansey

2/21/2017 12:09:38 pm

This is a nice and touching story. If not for your writing, I'd have no idea about Baggio's gentle soul. I am late to the beautiful game, lured by my children's soccer careers which started in 1996.

I remember catching the Kicks from the Mark with my wife and 5- and 3-year olds to end the 1994 World Cup and the four of us promptly and cheekily heading to our favorite Italian restaurant, Prince Umberto in Franklin Square, with a tiny sense of morbid curiosity. I have always had a twinge that was insensitive of us. The proprietors were visibly somber, but the pasta e fagioli there is the best I've ever had. It was an afternoon that contributed to an adult-life obsession with jogo bonito and strong sentiments for Brazil.

But for your insights, George, I would not have seen as much of the human behind that kick (as I recall, over the crossbar and to the left?). It is good to see athletes showing such concern for what's truly important at times like these. We need all the help we can get.

Gene Palumbo

2/21/2017 12:43:16 pm

George,
This is beautiful. Thanks so much for it - the post, and the column of yours that you linked to.

George Vecsey

2/21/2017 03:05:37 pm

Dear Andy & Gene: Thanks for your comments. I was lucky to have a friend who was around the Italian team.Said he once stood near Baggio as he practice free kicks -- curled in all 10. Of course, easier in practivce than a match.
Baggio didn't break when Sacchi hooked him after keeper was red-carded during WC 1994. Few games later he found a seam to tie the knockout game with Nigeria, then won with PK in OT. I saw the head of the federation look like he was going to jump out of the press tribute in closing minutes if they lost.
Best pass I ever saw was a grass-skimmer from Baggio to George Weah, going 60 mph yet avoiding offisides, and Weah converted. They only played briefly together at AC Milan -- in perfect synch.

Alan Rubin link

2/23/2017 11:09:59 am

George

Thanks for sharing your insights on Roberto Baggio’s fiftieth birthday.

Del Piero's simple and sincere birthday wishes for Baggio showed the true meaning of friendship. We do not see enough of the softer and caring side of pubic people.

I recently read a story about Paris Saint-Germain’s signing of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The manager, I’m not sure if it was Carlo Ancelotti or Laurent Blanc, was concerned about how Zlatan would affect the team's chemistry. The decision to sign him was made after it was learned that Zlatan had given a ride home to a crying school boy who had missed his bus.

The manager had not seen that side of Zlatan and felt he would not be a problem. It was a wise decision as Zlatan blended in well and helped PSG to several championships.

“I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic” is an interesting read. He overcame a very tough youth through confidence, hard work and eventually confidence in his abilities. Thinking back on the book, there was evidence of his softer side.

https://www.amazon.com/I-Am-Zlatan-Ibrahimovic/dp/0241966833/ref=pd_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=NDN9X0GFTF3S10B4CJHN

The human interest stories are one of the many highlights of your blog.

George Vecsey

2/24/2017 08:34:13 am

Alan, thanks for the response.
Ibrahimovic is surely a force on the field -- physically dominant, but also looking to score from all over.
I never knew much about him til recently -- complicated man complicated life. Didn't know the story of PSG and the ride he gave to a schoolkid.
He speaks five languages, I read.
GV

Brendan Buckley

2/27/2017 11:11:10 pm

Thank you, George, for sharing this story - heart warming to know that the man whose creative scoring touch captured the headlines as we hosted our first World Cup in 1994 is an empathic soul. Our children serenaded us from the back seat with the chant "Roberto Baggio, Roberto Baggio!" during that summer. And our family collectively mourned when his PK sailed over the bar to allow Brazil to win the final. You may remember that I shared with you the journal of my experience as a fan that summer. I was thrilled by his magic touch. I wish him well.

Happy New Year 2018 link

3/1/2017 03:38:09 am

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Guus van Holland link

3/23/2018 08:51:08 am

Thank you George. I was a fan of Roberto as a footballplayer. I was there at the final in the Rosebowl in Pasadena. Since I became interested in buddhism, I read stories of Baggio, so this article is wonderful. I hope I will meet him some day. Maybe you can tell me how.

Comments are closed.

QUOTES
More and More, I Talk to the Dead--Margaret Renkl

NASHVILLE — After my mother died so suddenly — laughing at a rerun of “JAG” at 10 p.m., dying of a hemorrhagic stroke by dawn — I dreamed about her night after night. In every dream she was willfully, outrageously alive, unaware of the grief her death had caused. In every dream relief poured through me like a flash flood. Oh, thank God!
Then I would wake into keening grief all over again.
Years earlier, when my father learned he had advanced esophageal cancer, his doctor told him he had perhaps six months to live. He lived far longer than that, though I never thought of it as “living” once I learned how little time he really had. For six months my father was dying, and then he kept dying for two years more. I was still working and raising a family, but running beneath the thin soil of my own life was a river of death. My father’s dying governed my days.
After he died, I wept and kept weeping, but I rarely dreamed about my father the way I would dream about my mother nearly a decade later. Even in the midst of calamitous grief, I understood the difference: My father’s long illness had given me time to work death into the daily patterns of my life. My mother’s sudden death had obliterated any illusion that daily patterns are trustworthy.
Years have passed now, and it’s the ordinariness of grief itself that governs my days. The very air around me thrums with absence. I grieve the beloved high-school teacher I lost the summer after graduation and the beloved college professor who was my friend for more than two decades. I grieve the father I lost nearly 20 years ago and the father-in-law I lost during the pandemic. I grieve the great-grandmother who died my junior year of college and the grandmother who lived until I was deep into my 40s.
Some of those I grieve are people I didn’t even know. How can John Prine be gone? I hear his haunting last song, “I Remember Everything,” and I still can’t quite believe that John Prine is gone.
-----
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/30/opinion/death-grief-memory.html
Jan. 30, 2023

How Roberto Baggio Spent His 50th Birthday

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