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The lost penalty against Brazil, in the final of the 1994 World Cup, Roberto Baggio to the gallery of stars who were harmed by never winning a World Cup and, by table, to the very rare pantheon of soccer villains absolved by history. With his hands on his hips, his head down and his braids in his hair, the Italia 10 jersey was devastated by the miscalculation in the penalty kick, surpassed by the goal defended by Taffarel at the Rose Bowl stadium in Los Angeles. That capital failure would serve not only to feed his mythical figure among Italians, but to make him, by irony of fate, an unforgettable character also for Brazilians.
Baggio reached the World Cup as the best player in the world in activity, a top scorer in Italy and Europe. However, his competitive career was discreet. A Azzurra ranked third in their group for tiebreaker criteria. Pursued by various injuries, the team star would begin to shine from the second round, when he scored the two goals of the victory over Nigeria in overtime, in overtime. Against Spain, he was again decisive to ensure victory with two minutes remaining. He was injured in the match, which would not prevent him, in the next match, from using his entire category to balance the nets twice against Bulgaria and mark Italy’s place in the final.
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After a grueling 120 minutes, in the nearly 35-degree heat, Baggio, acting with a protection on his right thigh, was the last Italian criminal on penalties against Brazil. As Massaro and Baresi had already wasted their chances, the 10 shirt went to the mark of the lime without the right to fail. “When Baggio went to pick up, he was sure of victory. Whoever trusts God will never lose anyone who believes in Buddha, ”said goalkeeper Taffarel, one of the missionaries of the evangelical wing of the Brazilian team known as Athletes of Christ, in an interview with Punctuation. The Italian replied with the same class that was peculiar to him in the field: “He has his faith. I have mine And each one must be respected for their beliefs. “
Conversion to Buddhism in a Catholic-majority country took place at the most dramatic moment in his career. He had suffered a knee injury at the age of 18, when he was still defending Vicenza, the club that revealed him. The injury would worsen when he was transferred to Fiorentina. In one of the surgeries, he had to receive more than 200 stitches in his leg. Desperate for the possibility of having to leave football early, he considered killing himself until a friend introduced him to the Soka Gakkai, a Buddhist chain that preaches meditation as a way to block negative energies. “For the first time, I was able to feel comfortable, happy and motivated in these difficult times,” Baggio reminded a Japanese documentary. After almost three years of struggling with injuries, he finally managed to establish himself and, in 1990, he would contest his first Cup. “When I started practicing Buddhism, I had the feeling that an immense vital energy arose within me.”
Even in the Catholic family context, the player founded Buddhist schools in Italy. On the eve of the 94th World Cup, he met the philosopher Daisaku Ikeda, leader of the Soka Gakkai, and since then has become a kind of universal ambassador of Buddhism, which would motivate his foray into political activism. In addition to integrating humanitarian expeditions in earthquake-affected places in his country and in Haiti, Baggio campaigned for the release of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years under house arrest imposed by the military dictatorship in Myanmar. . She was released in 2010 and, five years later, became leader of the Burmese government. “I identify with his non-violent battle for freedom and democracy,” said the Italian when he received it in Rome.
Today, Suu Kyi is criticized by international organizations for the bloody repression promoted by the Army against Muslims of the Rohingya ethnic minority, historically persecuted by Buddhist radicals in the Asian country. Like his friend, Baggio is also interrogated for contradicting pacifist speech while maintaining an old hobby. Since he was an athlete, he has always been an expert in animal hunting, especially in Argentina, where he has a farm. In 2018, he sued the leaders of an animal protection NGO, which spread posters around his hometown of Caldogno, with images of Baggio wielding weapons and hunter dress. “Baggio has the courage to define himself as a Buddhist and enjoy hunting, going abroad for the infamous death trips,” the activists accused. In his defense, the ace acknowledged that he practices hunting, “but I have nothing against animals.”
Despite criticism, humanitarian activism and Buddhism have earned him distinctions such as the World Peace Prize, presented by the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Assembly, and the largest medal of honor to Soka Gakkai University in Japan, in 1999. “It is more rewarding than receiving the Ballon d’Or,” Baggio compared in a thank you speech. “I base my philosophy of life on the search for happiness. It’s what motivates me to help other people. “Community involvement beyond the ball helps to understand the idolatry of a player who has won only four titles in Italy, none of them for the national team. Jorge Valdano, former coach and EL PAÍS columnist, has another explanation: “Baggio was an athlete with a melancholic but brilliant aura, with a very peculiar collective intelligence. The representation of when talent finds freedom.”
Due to his ingenuity, capable of creating plays and scoring goals, the offensive midfielder was considered in Europe “the most Brazilian player in Italy”. He says he was inspired by Zico, who, in his youth, loved it defending Flamengo and the Brazilian team. Baggio also served as a reference in Brazil. After the penalty was lost in 94, there was an explosion of baptisms inspired by his name. Some of them even followed the same path through the fields. This is the case of Douglas Baggio, a forward revealed by Flamengo, whose father had promised his wife, pregnant at the time, that if the Italian wasted the position, he would honor him shortly after the birth of his son, baptized seven months later. of the fourth championship.
A story similar to that of Roberto Baggio Ribeiro da Costa, 24, who works for CAP Uberlândia, from the second division of Minas Gerais, in a position similar to that of the Italian idol. The family has a respectable poster of names of footballers. The father, Roberto Carlos, named Roberto Caniggia’s first son, in honor of the Argentine executioner from Brazil in the 1990s Cup. The youngest is named Roberto Romário. And Roberto do Meio received the distinction of the hero in the back of 94. “My father put that name more in irony, in the same joke,” says the attacking midfielder. The Brazilian Roberto Baggio was born in Laranjal do Jari, in Amapá, and tries to follow in the footsteps of the homonym consecrated thousands of kilometers from his home, hoping someday to meet him. “I get a lot of inspiration from him, except to hit a penalty kick,” he jokes. “I made a mistake, but I never kicked the goal like that.”
This Sunday, the Amapá player has the opportunity to see the final between Brazil and Italy that originated his name. The match will be repeated by Globo in its entirety, at 4pm. Today, at 53, Baggio still feels pain when he gets out of bed as a result of injuries that affected his knee. He said goodbye to football in 2004, defending Brescia, who was revered and applauded by his rival Milan supporters. “People kept worshiping me the same way,” he told the newspaper. Corriere dello Sport remembering the fateful penalty of that decision. “I felt like I was dying. I have not yet accepted the error. I kicked the happy ending of my dream. Not only mine, but the dream of all Italians. Fortunately, life goes far beyond football. “Next year, Netflix will release a biographical film about her career, Il Codino Divino, alluding to the ponytail braid hairstyle that the star has eternal.
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