Roberto Baggio was too nice and clean-cut to be as famous as Diego Maradona, claims former Juventus teammate Giancarlo Marocchi. “A Number 10 was meant to go partying and take drugs.”
The Divine Ponytail was arguably the greatest Italian player of all time, but was too tactically free to fit in with the rigid management style of the time.
“I played six years with Baggio at Juventus and Bologna, so that’s the longest relationship I’ve had with anyone other than my wife,” Marocchi told Sky Sport Italia.
“Being a midfielder, I was in a privileged position to watch the beauty of his football. When he had the ball at his feet, that was the most beautiful thing you could see in the sport.
“What he won or didn’t win, where he played or didn’t play, that doesn’t matter. Baggio was Baggio, regardless of where he was at that moment.”
However, Baggio was not always appreciated abroad, nor within the Italian walls.
“Roby was like the son-in-law that every father would want for his daughter to marry,” continued Sky Sport Italia pundit Marocchi.
“He was reliable, calm, and perhaps that’s why he didn’t get along with his coaches. At the time, a Number 10 had to be a bit like Maradona: womaniser, nights out partying, a few drugs… That’s the only explanation I can possibly find.”
Even in an era when refereeing was a little more lenient, Baggio found a way around it.
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“Nobody ever stayed at the requisite distance for a free-kick, so he would pass it backward, I’d stop the ball and Baggio would then shoot. I technically got an assist on those!”
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