Roberto Baggio, The Adventurer Who Tasted the Great Italian Clubs

the best Italian footballers of all time

While praising one of his former foster children, Fabio Capello revealed interesting little-known facts about Roberto Baggio, including the efforts made by this great football legend to keep playing with AC Milan.

one of the best Italian footballers of all time, Roberto Baggio, has turned 50 years old. And one figure who had coached Il Divin Codinos during his time with AC Milan, Fabio Capello, expressed his views on the former sensational player, revealing facts that are not much known by the fans.

In an interview like that published in Calciomercato, Capello admitted he was lucky to have the opportunity to train one of the best players with extraordinary ball processing skills.

"I was fortunate enough to be able to train it," Capello said Radio Blu. "He was very close to the end of his career and suffered extreme pain in his knee. I think he is the only world-class footballer besides (Gianni) Rivera. He has amazing dribbling skills and it's very easy for him to dribble the ball past his opponents. "

On this occasion, the Italian tactician also revealed the reason Baggio could not train with Rossoner and his efforts to remain able to play well on the field.

"As an individual, he is always very calm and relaxed, especially after he has converted to Buddhism," he added. "During his time at AC Milan, he could not train. He only does physiotherapy sessions to keep his muscles strong or he won't be able to play because of the pain in his knee. That is enough to explain how much he loves playing football. "

ROBERTO Baggio for 22 years (1982-2004) had a career as a professional footballer and everything was spent at home. During this time, the man who is identical with ponytail, defended a number of Italian terrace clubs.

Call it Fiorentina, Juventus, Inter and AC Milan. Now the question becomes, which club Baggio shines the most? After being examined, Juventus is the club that most utilizes Baggio's energy to its full potential.

Baggio defended Juventus in the period 1990-1995, or when he was aged 23 to 28 years. This age is a ripe age for footballers. Therefore, no wonder Baggio also performed brilliantly for five years defending Juventus.

At that time, Baggio down in 198 matches with a collection of 112 goals and 12 assists. Thanks to goals and assists scored by Baggio, Juventus brought by the 52-year-old man won three trophies. Call it the UEFA Cup (now the European League) 1992-1993, the Italian League 1994-1995 and the Coppa Italia 1994-1995.

When defending Juventus also, Baggio won the Ballon d'Or trophy in 1993. At that time, Baggio collected 142 points, ahead of Denis Bergkamp (83) in second place and Eric Cantona (34). Outside of Juventus, Baggio's achievements with elite Italian clubs are not special.

Take for example when defending Milan in 1995-1997. At that time, Baggio only dropped in 67 matches with a collection of 19 goals and five assists. Even so, Baggio had a hand when delivering Milan to be the best in the Italian League 1995-1996.

Furthermore, when defending Inter Milan in 1998-2000, Baggio, who is identical to the number 10, only collected 17 goals in 59 matches. With Inter, Baggio failed to win the trophy at all, until finally the Italian soccer maestro left Brescia in the summer of 2000 and finally retired four years later.