The mistreated prince

Roberto Baggio's somber face at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena is perhaps the most enduring image from a Word Cup which conquered football's final frontier. Photo: Daily Star Archive

The 1994 World Cup ended as it started: with a missed penalty. A calendar month after Diana Ross' orchestrated shot trundled hilariously wide, Roberto Baggio's wild spot kick launched over Taffarel's goal like a stray firework. A month of wall-to-wall football, was encapsulated by two strikingly similar moments of failure, one comic and one tragic. The former summed up Americans' laughable relationship with football, the latter stained one of football's greatest careers indelibly.
Baggio was a prime attacking talent of his era who graced three World Cup tournaments with an enigmatic presence. Baggio won two Scudetti, a UEFA Cup, a Ballon d'Or and a World Player of the Year award; scoring 204 goals in 452 Serie A appearances and 27 in 56 internationals. He inspired awe throughout the footballing world, and was beloved back home, yet never quite won over his coaches. As it was, Italian coaches' conservatism often took Il Divin Codino [The Divine Ponytail], so called because of his mullet hairstyle, out of their reckoning.
Ahead of Italia '90, riots in Florence caused by Baggio's world record transfer move to Juventus from Fiorentina had made international headlines, yet the world was made to wait until Italy's third match for its first sight of the man. Baggio scored in that game against Czechoslovakia with a solo goal that proved the best of the entire tournament. He scored again and inspired the Azzurri to a 2-1 third-place win over England.
By the time the tournament crossed the Atlantic in 1994, Baggio was undisputed Italian kingpin, yet the relations with coach Arigo Sacchi were still uneasy. An opening defeat to Ireland, 1-0, and the early dismissal of goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca against Norway had Italy on the brink. Sacchi's choice was to bring on substitute goalkeeper Luca Marchegiani for Baggio; the star man rendered dispensable.
Italy scrubbed the win. The knockout rounds saw five goals in three matches from Baggio propelling Italy to the final. He had made his point to Sacchi.
However, the semifinal victory over Bulgaria came at the cost of a hamstring injury. Without him, Italy were surely lost. Sacchi took the risk, but Baggio was ineffective in the final; and neither team scored in 120 minutes, before Brazil won 3-2 on penalties, with Baggio blasting Italy's last kick high over the bar.
Four troubled years later, Baggio was a wildcard pick for France '98 by coach Cesare Maldini. Greying around the temples, but as influential as ever, Baggio looked a renewed force. Though yet again, the big moment deserted him. In extra time in a quarterfinal with France, Demetrio Albertini drifted over a pass that invited a typical Baggio volley. This was the tournament of the sudden death 'Golden Goal', but the shot was dragged agonisingly wide. After another goalless 120 minutes of action, Baggio would score in the shootout this time, but Italy perished on penalties again.
It proved to be another near-miss for one of the greats of the modern game, who did not return to the tournament after a torn cruciate playing for Brescia ruled him out of Giovanni Trapattoni's reckoning for 2002. Despite a comeback that took 76 days, and an open letter sent by Baggio himself, Trap denied the nation and the world the romance of seeing Baggio at the World Cup again.