Roberto Baggio
--- A great athlete

Defining who is great depends on how one measures success. But there are some criteria, one of which is public-opinion poll. According to a latest world wide survey based on Internet, Roberto Baggio is considered as the third most successful soccer athlete in history, following Pele and Maradona.

When I first saw him on a soccer match, I saw through his deep eye peace, ambition, eagerness, boldness, confidence, and indomitability. I was fascinated by this world famous ponytail, who dazzled the fans with a Spartan attitude toward life. In fact, I am not an armchair supporter. When I was asked my favorite number for my soccer shirt, I chose the number 18 without doubt, which represents Baggio's spirit.

Some people consider Baggio is outdated and a lot of new stars play the most important roles on soccer field nowadays. Maybe they are right, but in my opinion, the so-called new stars could hardly accomplish their success in face of so many difficulties as Baggio did. Anyway, our Baggio is a great man with a lot of stories, never defeated by frustration, and never lowering his head against doom. He is great not only on the soccer field but also outside the stadium, which means both his talent of soccer playing technique and spirit won a tremendous number of hard core fans all over the world.

In 1994, the World Cup in the USA, Baggio led the Italy team that was built around him. Every goal he scored seemed to inspire the team and he got hundreds of thousands of more admiring fans. But in the semi-final Baggio suffered a serious thigh injury and even though the doctors told him not to play. Baggio knew that he could not let the Italian people down, so he risked more serious injury to his thigh and played as a starting position on the day of the final. With the injury holding him back, he couldn't find a goal to save Italy again. Unfortunately, three Italians missed the vital penalties, including Baggio. The World Cup trophy was not for him then. I never forget his wet eyes with sorrow at that time he missed the last penalty.

According to a statistic data, Baggio only missed 12 penalties out of more than 120 totally. However, a lot of people only remember the missed one and focus the reason of the failure on him. What an unfair conclusion! Baggio had been criticized and blamed since the US world cup.

Anyway, as a true man, Baggio was defeated by a team but never be destroyed. In World Cup 98 in France, in the first game Baggio started playing vs. Chile and one of the most amazing and tense things happened in sport during the game. Four years after Baggio missed the most important shot in his life in World Cup 94 in USA, a penalty was called by the referee against Chile and Baggio walked calmly to the penalty spot. All of the Baggio's fans around the world and all of Italy's hearts stopped. Baggio placed the ball and stepped back… I even could not look, and he aimed and shot… He scored! In an instant, all the bad dreams of World Cup 94 were erased. Baggio was back! And we can see the endeavor and suffering beneath the score. In the tournament Baggio scored his ninth world cup goal that makes him the leading Italian goal scorer in the World Cup.

Baggio is a great fighter, not only against the pressure and frustration, but also against the injury. As we know, when Baggio was about 20 years old, one of his knees was crashed. During the rest career years, he has to suffer this injury for more than 15 years. An intrinsic passion for soccer is a key to rising above and to fight against the difficulties and injuries.

Now, Baggio is more mature and became the leader of Brescia, which has not lost in 16 games recently. Although the Italian public demanded to recall Baggio to the Italy national team, it didn't work on the decision of the coach. Maybe with the aging of Baggio, we will never see his deep eyes and charming ponytail in blue again. However, in my heart, Roberto Baggio, one of the greatest soccer athletes represents Italian soccer forever.

May 3rd,2003