It’s June 23rd and nearly one week into USA ’94. If you happened to miss the clash between Italy and Norway and, as one did in those days, checked Ceefax and seen the headline ’Baggio heads winner’, you would reasonably assume that Roberto Baggio had saved Italy’s blushes from a surprising early exit from the competition. Italy’s talisman and creator-in-chief was the planet’s finest player having won the Balon d’Or the previous December and had scored seventeen league goals for Juventus in the season heading into the tournament
Ray Houghton’s winner for the Republic of Ireland in the
opening match of group stage E meant Arrigo Sacchi’s Azzurri had no alternative but to win their second game against the
dull-but-resolute Norwegians. In the 68th
minute Italy, who had been reduced to ten men earlier in the match, are awarded
a free kick on the left hand side of the pitch. Beppe Signori, with his
pint-sized left foot, whips a glorious ball into the box on to the head of the
onrushing Baggio. He guides the ball powerfully past Erik Thorstvedt to give
Italy the lead and eventually the victory.
Yet it wasn’t the pony-tailed genius that garnered headlines
this time, it was the other Baggio, the unheralded yet-gifted central
midfielder Dino Baggio.
Born in July 1971 in Camposampiero, a small town in the
province of Padova, Dino had the misfortune to be born in relative proximity to
Roberto (only four years separate the pair). Despite the fact that both played
in different positions and their physical statures couldn’t have been more
contrasting; Dino was a tall, robust-tackling midfielder with short, cropped hair.
Roberto was a small, timid, tortured-genius that sported a ponytail with beads
at the tip.
Dino would spend a career playing in the trequartista’s shade,
purely because they shared a surname. Do a Google search of Dino Baggio and one
of the results that crops up is ‘Dino Baggio, Roberto Baggio’s brother’.
Mention the name Baggio to any football aficionado and it won’t be Dino who
instantly comes to mind.
Dino, alongside Gianlugi Lentini, were products of the
Torino primavera (youth team) in the mid to late 1980s and made his debut for a
newly promoted Granata against Lazio
in September 1990 at age of just nineteen. Under the guidance of Emilio
Mondonico, who had just arrived at the club after a very successful stint with
Atalanta, Torino and Baggio would enjoy a fruitful season. Torino finished in 5th
position, thus qualifying for the UEFA Cup, whilst Baggio played in 25 games
and scored two goals. In a country infamous for not giving young players a
chance, Dino’s first season in Serie A was a resounding success.
It was to be his only season with Toro, as city neighbour’s Juventus recognised his talent by buying
him in the summer of 1991, only for him to be immediately sent out on loan to
Inter ahead of the 1991/92 season. He produced another solid season in which he
played 27 games, gaining valuable experience playing alongside Lothar Matthaus
and Nicola Berti.
The summer of 1992 saw Baggio return to the black and white
half of Turin, where he was to compete for a starting berth alongside new
signings David Platt and Andreas Moeller.
Juventus, now hailing two Baggio’s in their starting XI, both
had stellar seasons. Dino particularly was a revelation in central midfield,
not initially accepted by the fans due to his Torino past, he won over his
skeptics with some fine performances. However it was in Juve’s march to the
UEFA Cup where he really excelled.
In six appearances he scored five times, including three
goals over the course of the two-legged final against Borussia Dortmund, with
Roberto scoring twice, the Baggio boys had annihilated the German’s 6-1, the
highest aggregate score line the final of the competition has ever witnessed.
Dino picked up his first winners’ medal of his career.
Still a largely unknown entity outside of the peninsula,
especially in those pre-internet, pre-every-league-being-shown-on-television
days. USA ’94 however would change all that.
Having made his debut for the national team in 1991 under
Arrigo Sacchi, Baggio had become a regular fixture in the Azzurri setup, however as the 1994 World Cup loomed, many felt he
shouldn’t have been in the final squad for America. He was injured for portions
of the 1993/94 campaign and couldn’t replicate his form of the previous season.
Sacchi always cherished players with Dino’s qualities; a
strong work ethic combined with a keen sense of collective solidarity, more so
than Roberto’s individual tendencies, and had no doubts that he deserved to be
in the starting XI. He had scored three times during the qualifying stage
including the crucial goal against Portugal the previous November that
guaranteed Italy safe passage to the tournament as group winners. ‘’People didn't believe in Dino Baggio,"
said Sacchi. "He has silenced a lot of them. Now, he has become a major
weapon for us.’’
Italy’s World Cup could almost be divided into two parts,
entitled: The Baggio’s World Cup. Each player claiming a section, the passing
of time has dictated that Roberto carried Italy to the final from the start,
but that isn’t accurate. The group stages firmly belonged to Dino as Roberto
struggled to overcome an Achilles injury. Who can forget the infamous scene against
Norway when Sacchi decided to substitute the no.10 in the opening twenty
minutes when Gianluca Pagliuca got dismissed? ‘’He’s gone mad!’’ Roberto said
in disbelief as he trudged off the pitch. The World Player of the Year wasn’t
performing, but Dino was, and Italy had made it into the last sixteen. Just.
The knockout stages belonged to Roberto as he almost single
handedly won Italy the World Cup with a series of virtuoso displays in what
surely would have went down as the best one-man show since Diego Maradona in
Mexico ’86. Dino also made vital contributions, clearing the ball off the line
against Nigeria with the African’s 1 – 0 ahead, and scoring a stunning, dipping
twenty-five yard pile driver against Spain in the quarter finals. The Baggio’s
had guided Italy to another World Cup.
Despite his glowing performances throughout the tournament,
Dino had announced himself to the world yet still found being referred to as
‘The Other Baggio’ or ‘Baggio II’ by the media. In an interview on the eve of
the final he showed rumblings of discontent about sharing a surname with one of
the world’s most famous footballers ‘’For years, no one knows who I am, and then after few World
Cup games, everyone says I am the other Baggio’’. He further added ‘’ By the end, maybe I’ll show everyone I have a
first name and last name’’.
When Italy returned
home after the heartbreaking loss against Brazil, being the lesser-known Baggio
did have its benefits. Roberto was the sacrificial lamb as the Italian media
slaughtered him for the Azzurri’s
World Cup defeat, meanwhile Dino returned home as one of Italy’s standout
performers and his stock raised considerably.
During the early
stages of USA ’94, Parma entered talks with Juventus over the signing of
Baggio, Dino initially refused to entertain the idea of moving to the
Emilia-Romagna outfit. So in a move that could have radically altered the
history of both clubs, the Gialloblu
turned their attention to a promising youngster called Alessandro Del Piero,
then a bushy-haired nineteen year old.
With club and player
both in agreement over the move and the deal going so far as the paperwork
being submitted to the league, Baggio suddenly had a change of heart. He had
held talks with the new Juventus regime and soon understood the move to Parma
would be beneficial for his career, ‘’Going to Parma is good for me, because I want to play more’’
he said. Del Piero stayed and would remain in Turin for the next eighteen
years.
Over the
next six years Parma would see the best of Baggio, he arrived at a club that
already contained world-class internationals such as Nestor Sensini, Tomas
Brolin, Gianfranco Zola and Faustino Asprilla.
Placed
in the heart of Nevio Scala’s 5-3-2 formation, Baggio hit the ground running
and played a pivotal role in what ultimately would be the club’s finest ever
season.
Parma
and Juventus, now with one Baggio on either side, would embark on a duel for
domestic and European supremacy. La
Vecchia Signora would win a domestic double by winning the league with a
ten-point margin over Parma and Lazio, and then beating Parma in the final of
the Coppa Italia. The two teams would do battle once more in the final of the
UEFA Cup, playing each other an incredible five times over May and June of
1995.
Just as
he had done two years prior, Dino played an instrumental part in the two-legged
affair and indeed the tournament. He scored three goals on route to the final
and proceeded to bookend the final, scoring the only goal in the first leg and
crucially netting the equaliser in the return leg to secure a 2-1 aggregate win
and Parma’s second European trophy in three years. Dino had once more proven
his aptitude for scoring on the big occasions and in the process had upstaged
Roberto. Nobody has scored more goals in the history of UEFA Cup finals.
Dino was
now regarded as one of the best central midfielders in the Italian game, excelling
in every facet of his game. He’d continue his excellent form over the next
several seasons in the midst of Parma’s golden era. He helped the club qualify
for the Champions League after they agonisingly missed out on a historic league
title by a mere two points to Juventus in 1996/1997.
During
Parma’s run to another UEFA Cup triumph in the 1998/99, he made international
headlines after being struck on the head with a knife by a fan in the stands
during a game against Wislaw Krakow in Poland. He played on for the remaining
ten minutes of the match but required five stitches after. He maintained that
he was very fortunate saying ‘’ I turned my head a second before I was hit and if I hadn't
then I could have been struck in the face or the knife could have gone in my
eye.’’ Parma would go on to overwhelm Marseille 3 - 0 in the final in Moscow
with Baggio picking up his third winners’ medal in the competition.
His
continual excellence at club level transferred itself to the national side,
where he was permanent fixture in midfield for the rest of the decade.
Coincidentally both Baggio’s Azzurri careers
would end in 1999 (if you discard Roberto’s swan-song friendly against Spain in
2004). Italy’s Euro ’00 squad contained neither Baggio for the first time since
Euro ’88 as Dino made the provisional squad but was cut by Dino Zoff.
Injuries
were beginning to hamper the midfielder’s dynamism and his love affair at the
Tardini ended in 2000 when he was sold to Lazio. He was used sparingly in Rome
and found it difficult to hold down a first team place against competition from
Juan Veron, Diego Simeone and Dejan Stankovic.
As he
entered his early 30s and abilities waning, his career petered out with loan
spells at Blackburn Rovers, Ancona and Triestina before retiring in 2005 at the
age of thirty-four. Roberto meanwhile retired a year earlier at the San Siro
with 80,000 people chanting his name as he walked off into the sunset.
He maintained
nevertheless that their friendship was never effected, and they hunted, skied
and roomed together whilst teammates at Juventus.
It’s
extremely unfortunate when one considers that there had never been a player christened
Baggio in Serie A’s long history and according to the website http://www.cognomix.it, there are an estimated 1500 people living in
Italy with the Baggio surname from a population of roughly 59 million, yet two
rose to prominence within the same period, and regrettably for Dino, he
followed behind arguably Italy’s greatest player and one so beloved that he
became the topic of discussion in parliament on numerous occasions.
When
discussing great Italian midfielders, even within the confines of the 1990s,
Dino Baggio is frequently overlooked, yet when evaluating his career and
achievements, he undeniably warrants a consideration. Had he been born a decade
later perhaps his talents would have gained more appreciation, but though he
won more caps for his country than his namesake, he will forever live in the
ponytailed shadow of Roberto and be known as ‘The Other Baggio’.
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