Just seen the Baggio clip in the death of Peter Brackley thread and was reminded of his legend and the unfortunate legacy left behind based solely on a missed penalty.
I realise Baggio is one of those players only those who saw play or have a genuine interest in finding out about greats of the past, will ever truly appreciate how special a player he was. There's now a grown generation who have probably only seen brief clips of him or some dismissive footnote who have no idea he was one of the world's truly great players and the forerunning attacker in the greatest period of time any European league has or will most likely ever have.
Romario basically took the majority of the plaudits for the 1994 World Cup, whilst Baggio, who was arguably the best player of the tournament, was pilloried and given nowhere near his due, like say a Cruyff or Puskas got for ending a WC in exactly the same runners-up position. But for a single penalty, Baggio's legacy was reduced to nothingness relative to the pantheon he'd effortlessly be mentioned in the same breath as without that penalty miss.
I'm not sure there's been a bigger fall guy in the game's history than Baggio.
Do you think you can come up with any? Outside of him, who do you feel have been the most brutally and unfairly treated in terms of the post-career regard they are held in?
I realise Baggio is one of those players only those who saw play or have a genuine interest in finding out about greats of the past, will ever truly appreciate how special a player he was. There's now a grown generation who have probably only seen brief clips of him or some dismissive footnote who have no idea he was one of the world's truly great players and the forerunning attacker in the greatest period of time any European league has or will most likely ever have.
Romario basically took the majority of the plaudits for the 1994 World Cup, whilst Baggio, who was arguably the best player of the tournament, was pilloried and given nowhere near his due, like say a Cruyff or Puskas got for ending a WC in exactly the same runners-up position. But for a single penalty, Baggio's legacy was reduced to nothingness relative to the pantheon he'd effortlessly be mentioned in the same breath as without that penalty miss.
I'm not sure there's been a bigger fall guy in the game's history than Baggio.
Do you think you can come up with any? Outside of him, who do you feel have been the most brutally and unfairly treated in terms of the post-career regard they are held in?