Thank you so much for this wonderful job! I cannot stop watching movies about Baggio's all touches...everything he does is so brilliant! I've met him once and I can say he's very kind and funny! Really beautiful meeting!
I always think Baggio would have fit better in teams that deploy a tikitaka tactic. During his career, however, he had pretty much been the sole creative player in those teams.
I don't know what it was, but at Milan he didn't look in good shape physically. He looked slower, more slugglish, and not as sharp mentally either, even though his technique, creativity, set-piece ability and eye for goal were all still there; he just seemed less confident. I know he had some injuries at first, plus at Milan Capello played him out of position and would often substitute him at half-time, because he felt that he couldn't handle playing the full 90 minutes physically, but I'm still confused why this was the case, considering that with Bologna he looked so much fitter, and sharper, even though he was played further up than he would've preferred. Was it that the training regime at Milan didn't suit him (it's not like Capello is a light coach), becuase his fitness coaches at Bologna also commented that when he arrived they had to get him in better shape, and although Baggio didn't defend much and had physical problems, he was never lazy in training. I know he had suffered a long injury Juve the previous season, but towards he end of 1995 he still looked like his old self and played really well after coming back from injury, so I would've thought that he would've picked up where he left off with Milan. That being said, and despite all the unfair and excessive media criticism he faced, he still put in some good and decisive performances and contributed to the Serie A title in 1996 with the most assists in the league and the match-winning penalty in the decisive match against Fiorentina. The next season was a disaster for everyone, but it wasn't really his fault, and then when Sacchi came he didn't play much which only made things worse. With Bologna he was more dynamic again, and he had a fantastic season, not only in terms of goals, but how he played as well, and it showed at the 1998 World Cup. And although he was more of the focal point there as it was a smaller club, it's not like he struggled playing with big players at Juve or with Italy, or even Inter. And even with Inter, despite not being successful, I thought he did well given his opportunities; in his first season he was one of the only bright spots of a dreadful season and had a good average rating and still provided a lot of assists. In his second season unfortunately he almost never played. And then with Brescia he was still excellent despite having slowed down a lot more with age. It's a shame because I always wonder what could've been if his time with Milan and Juve had been inverted; I'm guessing he would've won a lot more.
Great comment. Agreed with everything that you said. Baggio wasn't fortunate with the timing of his moves but in the end, class always shines through regardless of fortune, as was the case with Baggio and many other legends. He's arguably Italy's greatest forward ever alongside Giuseppe Meazza and a legend for the Azzurri for his World Cup exploits. Three fantastic campaigns with the 1994 World Cup being the cherry on top of the cake. Even when looking at his Serie A career objectively, Baggio dazzled in Italy when it was the best league in the world with some of the greatest players to ever play football - Maradona, van Basten, Ronaldo, Rijkaard, Baresi, Mätthaus, Gullit, Maldini, Brehme, Zanetti, Thuram, Zidane, Bergomi, Nesta, Desailly and a whole raft of other greats. It's hard to think of a period of time in footballing history with a greater collection of defensive greats and Baggio shone against them all! And when you take into consideration that he had his injury problems and wasn't so fortunate with his moves (and usually didn't play in a cohesive and a side brimming with greats, relatively), his performances and sheer longevity is all the more immense. Just a phenomenal player really. Just fantastic.
@@footballsgreatest2645 I agree. His career coincided with the time in which Serie A was probably not only the best league in the world, but also the best league we have ever seen, with all those all-time greats as you said, and some of the best teams of all time, with the Italian clubs dominating in European competitions, and Italy doing well in major tournaments. He was also up against some of the best defenders and goalkeepers ever, in a time where scores were fairly low. And despite everything, he was generally class throughout, even in his later years with Brescia against the top opponents, and was the first player in a long time to score over 200 goals in Serie A and the first Italian to score 300 goals in a long time, and he also had 120 assists in Serie A and over 150 career assists as well. Plus he shone with Italy at World Cups, and had an incredible goal and assist record for his country. And from a technical standpoint, he was absolutely sublime, even dare I say flawless; I think I've only seen Zidane, Bergkamp, and Ronaldinho with a first touch like his, and I've only ever seen Maradona, the Brazilian Ronaldo, Messi, and maybe Iniesta and Zidane dribble like him, with his close control at speed and ability to tear through an entire defence. And he was so creative and fun to watch, and scored so many incredible goals, and free kicks, and could bend the ball like few others. All of that still makes him an all-time great for me, despite the fact that he didn't win as much as other players. It's just a shame he never got to play at the European Championships with Italy, and that he only made his Champions League debut in his 30s because of the old regulations that prevented second or third-placed teams from qualifying. He had such a great record in Europe and with Italy that I think he could've done well in the Champions League at his peak, and even with his not ideal form and physical condition in 1996, maybe Italy would've won Euro 1996 if he had been there.
@@jackpuccini3143 I read somewhere recently a supposed quote from Baggio that the training regime at Bologna made him more physically robust than ever, and as you say he certainly looked more vigorous and physically confident while at Bologna. I don't think he got injured much that year either. I too lament that he never got to play in a Euro Championship, especially in '96! I say that because I am English, and it would have felt great seeing Baggio play at English stadiums, perhaps I would even have been able to persuade my Dad (not a big football fan) to have taken me to a game to watch him. It was a shame that Italy went out, they played well in that tournament and I think Casiraghi in particular played great. Had Baggio been taking that penalty rather than Zola...the little Sardinian was a wonderful player, but Baggio was that little bit better I think, and of course had a proven record of delivering results at international level and scoring penalties, unlike the unfortunate Zola.
@@danyoutube7491 Yes, I completely agree that he certainly looked sharper, more energised, and like he had gained some physical power and muscle mass as well at Bologna, which enabled him to adapt to his ageing more effectively in my opinion, and as you said he went injury free and had one of his best seasons, not only in terms of goals, but how well he played. If only he had played more at the 1998 World Cup; he deserved to start ahead of Del Piero, or maybe even to play behind him and Vieri, but Alex was also out of shape after his last minute injury, and Maldini would've never strayed from his usual formation. Maybe with Baggio we could've defeated France; they had a great team and were the hosts, but we also had a really good side; unfortunately Maldini was the wrong coach, and we played really conservatively despite all our great forwards, a strong back-line, good keepers, and a decent midfield. Yeah, I agree that it's a real shame that Baggio wasn't called up for Euro 96, and it would have been really nice for the English fans to see him play there, especially seeing as he always refused offers from Premier League clubs in order to remain in Italy and have a greater chance of being called up for his country (back then the managers were a bit silly and often disregarded players playing abroad, even if they did well like Zola, Simone or Panucci...); Sacchi said that Baggio was out of shape and that he didn't defend enough off the ball, but he still contributed to Milan's scudetto that year, and given his record for Italy, he should have been an undisputed inclusion in the team. Unfortunately he and Sacchi had also had a falling out after the 1994 World Cup, which made things worse. Yeah, as good as Zola was, I agree that Baggio had that something extra that made him truly special. His dribbling and attacking drive were superior, even though Zola was also a highly skilful technician who could also score and create; plus Baggio was slightly stronger mentally, and often delivered with Italy, although having said that Zola was often overlooked and had a great club career with Napoli, Parma, and Chelsea. It would've been nice if they could've played alongside one another, if Sacchi hadn't been so fixated with his 4-4-2 system, which by then had become mainstream and was no longer groundbreaking, especially seeing as Zola didn't like playing on the left wing, and neither did Signori (who was a prolific striker...); although Sacchi was a great, highly successful, innovative, and very forward thinking manager, he was also a bit too stubborn at times, and we had many great number 10s during that period who suffered a bit under him, like Mancini, Del Piero, Zola, and even Baggio, and he also left out some very good strikers like Vialli as well due to clashes he had with certain players. I agree that Baggio probably would've scored that penalty against Germany, despite his miss in the 1994 World Cup final, I think in order to prove himself, sort of like he did against Chile at the 1998 World Cup (I still find that miss bizarre...he was such a good penalty taker, and he always shot low, so I still don't understand how he mishit over the bar...he was injured, I suppose). It's such a shame that Baggio never played at the European Championships considering how good he was for Italy, especially at World Cups. In 1992, we didn't qualify, as for some reason Vicini didn't use him much during qualifying, even though when he did play he made an impact, and in 2000 Lippi didn't play him much with Inter and Zoff thought he was too old...I still feel like he would have buried those chances that Del Piero missed in the final had he been there, even with his age! Alex hadn't had a great season, and Baggio had finished the season strongly. With that goal we would've taken the lead and might have won the game against Germany and even gone through; who knows how we would've done after that, as sometimes a big win can have a huge impact on a team's morale, and we are notorious for starting slowly and then doing well if we do scrape by (although we aren't always consistent in this regard). Unfortunately it seems like Sacchi was overconfident after the opening win, and he changed the team too much in order to rest players and we lost the second game; I know that we only went out on direct encounters after finishing tied on 4 points with Czech Republic, and drew against the eventual champions, and that we had the two finalists in our group, but we should have done better, as we had a good team, and that tournament seems like a missed opportunity; not to mention that Del Piero should've been given a lot more space, and deserved to play further up with how well he did at Juve in the Champions League that year, as an offensive winger on the left rather than as a wide midfielder, but Sacchi didn't use the 4-3-3 formation (although he later showed that he was amazing as a second striker, too, and even as an out-and-out striker). But Sacchi never really seemed to click with the Italian national team unfortunately for some reason...I don't know why, especially as Vicini was also able to implement a nice attacking approach at Euro 88 and Italia 90 and did well. Baggio had mentioned that after a loss to Croatia in qualifying the players weren't happy with Sacchi and Italy never seemed to play in the spectacular, attacking-minded and energetic way that his legendary all-conquering Milan side played under him, even though he had many of the same players (Maldini, Tassotti, Costacurta, Baresi, Evani, Albertini, Donadoni, Massaro...and a better goalkeeper than Rossi in Pagliuca, and some other good players from Parma, as well as Baggio who was the best player in the world at the time). Obviously he lacked the magnificnt Dutch trio, but by then under Capello other players had also emerged at Milan, and that side was still dominating Italian and European football. Baggio was even better than Savicevic, who had replaced Gullit, and Dino Baggio was a decent ball-winner with a good work-rate and offensive capabilities, although he wasn't quite as strong as Desailly overall, who had replaced Rijkaard, and Massaro was playing as a striker instead of the injured Van Basten. Although we reached the final at the 1994 World Cup, we didn't play well, and we barely made it through the first round and then relied on Baggio's heroics to reach the final in the knockout stages.
Thank you so much for this wonderful job! I cannot stop watching movies about Baggio's all touches...everything he does is so brilliant! I've met him once and I can say he's very kind and funny! Really beautiful meeting!
You are welcome! Glad you are enjoying the videos.
I always think Baggio would have fit better in teams that deploy a tikitaka tactic. During his career, however, he had pretty much been the sole creative player in those teams.
Baggio maestro..
The maestro indeed 👍
I don't know what it was, but at Milan he didn't look in good shape physically. He looked slower, more slugglish, and not as sharp mentally either, even though his technique, creativity, set-piece ability and eye for goal were all still there; he just seemed less confident. I know he had some injuries at first, plus at Milan Capello played him out of position and would often substitute him at half-time, because he felt that he couldn't handle playing the full 90 minutes physically, but I'm still confused why this was the case, considering that with Bologna he looked so much fitter, and sharper, even though he was played further up than he would've preferred. Was it that the training regime at Milan didn't suit him (it's not like Capello is a light coach), becuase his fitness coaches at Bologna also commented that when he arrived they had to get him in better shape, and although Baggio didn't defend much and had physical problems, he was never lazy in training.
I know he had suffered a long injury Juve the previous season, but towards he end of 1995 he still looked like his old self and played really well after coming back from injury, so I would've thought that he would've picked up where he left off with Milan. That being said, and despite all the unfair and excessive media criticism he faced, he still put in some good and decisive performances and contributed to the Serie A title in 1996 with the most assists in the league and the match-winning penalty in the decisive match against Fiorentina. The next season was a disaster for everyone, but it wasn't really his fault, and then when Sacchi came he didn't play much which only made things worse.
With Bologna he was more dynamic again, and he had a fantastic season, not only in terms of goals, but how he played as well, and it showed at the 1998 World Cup. And although he was more of the focal point there as it was a smaller club, it's not like he struggled playing with big players at Juve or with Italy, or even Inter. And even with Inter, despite not being successful, I thought he did well given his opportunities; in his first season he was one of the only bright spots of a dreadful season and had a good average rating and still provided a lot of assists. In his second season unfortunately he almost never played. And then with Brescia he was still excellent despite having slowed down a lot more with age. It's a shame because I always wonder what could've been if his time with Milan and Juve had been inverted; I'm guessing he would've won a lot more.
Great comment. Agreed with everything that you said.
Baggio wasn't fortunate with the timing of his moves but in the end, class always shines through regardless of fortune, as was the case with Baggio and many other legends.
He's arguably Italy's greatest forward ever alongside Giuseppe Meazza and a legend for the Azzurri for his World Cup exploits. Three fantastic campaigns with the 1994 World Cup being the cherry on top of the cake.
Even when looking at his Serie A career objectively, Baggio dazzled in Italy when it was the best league in the world with some of the greatest players to ever play football - Maradona, van Basten, Ronaldo, Rijkaard, Baresi, Mätthaus, Gullit, Maldini, Brehme, Zanetti, Thuram, Zidane, Bergomi, Nesta, Desailly and a whole raft of other greats. It's hard to think of a period of time in footballing history with a greater collection of defensive greats and Baggio shone against them all!
And when you take into consideration that he had his injury problems and wasn't so fortunate with his moves (and usually didn't play in a cohesive and a side brimming with greats, relatively), his performances and sheer longevity is all the more immense. Just a phenomenal player really.
Just fantastic.
@@footballsgreatest2645 I agree. His career coincided with the time in which Serie A was probably not only the best league in the world, but also the best league we have ever seen, with all those all-time greats as you said, and some of the best teams of all time, with the Italian clubs dominating in European competitions, and Italy doing well in major tournaments. He was also up against some of the best defenders and goalkeepers ever, in a time where scores were fairly low. And despite everything, he was generally class throughout, even in his later years with Brescia against the top opponents, and was the first player in a long time to score over 200 goals in Serie A and the first Italian to score 300 goals in a long time, and he also had 120 assists in Serie A and over 150 career assists as well.
Plus he shone with Italy at World Cups, and had an incredible goal and assist record for his country. And from a technical standpoint, he was absolutely sublime, even dare I say flawless; I think I've only seen Zidane, Bergkamp, and Ronaldinho with a first touch like his, and I've only ever seen Maradona, the Brazilian Ronaldo, Messi, and maybe Iniesta and Zidane dribble like him, with his close control at speed and ability to tear through an entire defence. And he was so creative and fun to watch, and scored so many incredible goals, and free kicks, and could bend the ball like few others. All of that still makes him an all-time great for me, despite the fact that he didn't win as much as other players.
It's just a shame he never got to play at the European Championships with Italy, and that he only made his Champions League debut in his 30s because of the old regulations that prevented second or third-placed teams from qualifying. He had such a great record in Europe and with Italy that I think he could've done well in the Champions League at his peak, and even with his not ideal form and physical condition in 1996, maybe Italy would've won Euro 1996 if he had been there.
@@jackpuccini3143 I read somewhere recently a supposed quote from Baggio that the training regime at Bologna made him more physically robust than ever, and as you say he certainly looked more vigorous and physically confident while at Bologna. I don't think he got injured much that year either. I too lament that he never got to play in a Euro Championship, especially in '96! I say that because I am English, and it would have felt great seeing Baggio play at English stadiums, perhaps I would even have been able to persuade my Dad (not a big football fan) to have taken me to a game to watch him. It was a shame that Italy went out, they played well in that tournament and I think Casiraghi in particular played great. Had Baggio been taking that penalty rather than Zola...the little Sardinian was a wonderful player, but Baggio was that little bit better I think, and of course had a proven record of delivering results at international level and scoring penalties, unlike the unfortunate Zola.
@@danyoutube7491 Yes, I completely agree that he certainly looked sharper, more energised, and like he had gained some physical power and muscle mass as well at Bologna, which enabled him to adapt to his ageing more effectively in my opinion, and as you said he went injury free and had one of his best seasons, not only in terms of goals, but how well he played. If only he had played more at the 1998 World Cup; he deserved to start ahead of Del Piero, or maybe even to play behind him and Vieri, but Alex was also out of shape after his last minute injury, and Maldini would've never strayed from his usual formation. Maybe with Baggio we could've defeated France; they had a great team and were the hosts, but we also had a really good side; unfortunately Maldini was the wrong coach, and we played really conservatively despite all our great forwards, a strong back-line, good keepers, and a decent midfield.
Yeah, I agree that it's a real shame that Baggio wasn't called up for Euro 96, and it would have been really nice for the English fans to see him play there, especially seeing as he always refused offers from Premier League clubs in order to remain in Italy and have a greater chance of being called up for his country (back then the managers were a bit silly and often disregarded players playing abroad, even if they did well like Zola, Simone or Panucci...); Sacchi said that Baggio was out of shape and that he didn't defend enough off the ball, but he still contributed to Milan's scudetto that year, and given his record for Italy, he should have been an undisputed inclusion in the team. Unfortunately he and Sacchi had also had a falling out after the 1994 World Cup, which made things worse.
Yeah, as good as Zola was, I agree that Baggio had that something extra that made him truly special. His dribbling and attacking drive were superior, even though Zola was also a highly skilful technician who could also score and create; plus Baggio was slightly stronger mentally, and often delivered with Italy, although having said that Zola was often overlooked and had a great club career with Napoli, Parma, and Chelsea. It would've been nice if they could've played alongside one another, if Sacchi hadn't been so fixated with his 4-4-2 system, which by then had become mainstream and was no longer groundbreaking, especially seeing as Zola didn't like playing on the left wing, and neither did Signori (who was a prolific striker...); although Sacchi was a great, highly successful, innovative, and very forward thinking manager, he was also a bit too stubborn at times, and we had many great number 10s during that period who suffered a bit under him, like Mancini, Del Piero, Zola, and even Baggio, and he also left out some very good strikers like Vialli as well due to clashes he had with certain players. I agree that Baggio probably would've scored that penalty against Germany, despite his miss in the 1994 World Cup final, I think in order to prove himself, sort of like he did against Chile at the 1998 World Cup (I still find that miss bizarre...he was such a good penalty taker, and he always shot low, so I still don't understand how he mishit over the bar...he was injured, I suppose). It's such a shame that Baggio never played at the European Championships considering how good he was for Italy, especially at World Cups. In 1992, we didn't qualify, as for some reason Vicini didn't use him much during qualifying, even though when he did play he made an impact, and in 2000 Lippi didn't play him much with Inter and Zoff thought he was too old...I still feel like he would have buried those chances that Del Piero missed in the final had he been there, even with his age! Alex hadn't had a great season, and Baggio had finished the season strongly.
With that goal we would've taken the lead and might have won the game against Germany and even gone through; who knows how we would've done after that, as sometimes a big win can have a huge impact on a team's morale, and we are notorious for starting slowly and then doing well if we do scrape by (although we aren't always consistent in this regard). Unfortunately it seems like Sacchi was overconfident after the opening win, and he changed the team too much in order to rest players and we lost the second game; I know that we only went out on direct encounters after finishing tied on 4 points with Czech Republic, and drew against the eventual champions, and that we had the two finalists in our group, but we should have done better, as we had a good team, and that tournament seems like a missed opportunity; not to mention that Del Piero should've been given a lot more space, and deserved to play further up with how well he did at Juve in the Champions League that year, as an offensive winger on the left rather than as a wide midfielder, but Sacchi didn't use the 4-3-3 formation (although he later showed that he was amazing as a second striker, too, and even as an out-and-out striker). But Sacchi never really seemed to click with the Italian national team unfortunately for some reason...I don't know why, especially as Vicini was also able to implement a nice attacking approach at Euro 88 and Italia 90 and did well. Baggio had mentioned that after a loss to Croatia in qualifying the players weren't happy with Sacchi and Italy never seemed to play in the spectacular, attacking-minded and energetic way that his legendary all-conquering Milan side played under him, even though he had many of the same players (Maldini, Tassotti, Costacurta, Baresi, Evani, Albertini, Donadoni, Massaro...and a better goalkeeper than Rossi in Pagliuca, and some other good players from Parma, as well as Baggio who was the best player in the world at the time). Obviously he lacked the magnificnt Dutch trio, but by then under Capello other players had also emerged at Milan, and that side was still dominating Italian and European football. Baggio was even better than Savicevic, who had replaced Gullit, and Dino Baggio was a decent ball-winner with a good work-rate and offensive capabilities, although he wasn't quite as strong as Desailly overall, who had replaced Rijkaard, and Massaro was playing as a striker instead of the injured Van Basten. Although we reached the final at the 1994 World Cup, we didn't play well, and we barely made it through the first round and then relied on Baggio's heroics to reach the final in the knockout stages.
Unico