Mike Rogerson

5.0.5 All leagues loaded from England, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Portugal , Spain – Normal Database and no extra detail

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It’s the hair that one notices first. The walk, the leather overcoat, the smile, the twinkle in the eye – they turned heads twenty-five years ago, and still they turn heads. Every step is followed by all in the vicinity, as if some immortal walks amongst men. The BMW is parked in a side street and the driver, a man of no large stature, steps from it and back into the limelight after too long. A national treasure, he has been a virtual recluse since he stepped away from the game a year ago. Now he is back. Tempted by the lure of the home town club he left almost fifteen years ago, he arrives in the Vicenza hot-seat brimming with all the confidence that a lifetime of footballing success brings.

Yet it is the hair that one notices first. Shorter it may be than his public remembers, the spirit of the divine ponytail sways with every step that Roberto Baggio takes. Met by Chairman Caltran Silvano an outside the Romeo Menti Stadium, Baggio is ushered into a hastily convened press conference to face the assembled media.

Caltran Silvano Welcome members of the press. As you are well aware, this club has been seeking a Head Coach since the resignation of Giancarlo Bellotto at the end of last season. The board of directors and myself have made an appointment. He left this club in 1991 and went on to become one of the greatest players of his generation. He has returned now to do the job that he could not then. Ladies and gentlemen please welcome home… Roberto Baggio.

Roberto Baggio Thank you, Caltran. Good afternoon everybody.

CS Are there any questions from the floor?

Nico Biagimonte, Gazzetta Dello Sport Mr Silvano, isn’t Roberto a little inexperienced for this job?

CS Not at all, Nico. Who knows the game better than this man? We have a former World Player of the Year as Coach.

Enzo Paglione, Corriere della Sera Mr Silvano, with your club finishing a disappointing 13th last season in Serie B, how much money will Roberto have to rebuild the squad?

CS Enzo, Roberto and I discussed this matter before the appointment was made. My good friend here is aware that this is not the richest club in the league. He has funds available and will be allowed to keep what he makes in player sales. This is a long term project. We are thinking ahead. We now have a young coach, and we are looking for success.

NB Roberto, can you do this job with such little experience.

Roberto Baggio Yes. Next question.

EP Roberto, do you have any plans of how you aim to set about the job?

RB Thank you Enzo. I have a couple of months before the season starts. I’ll look at what we have here and arrange the side a few friendlies to see how the lads cope in different systems.

CS Thank you everybody. We have a job to do.

Terk

Good luck, Mike :thup:

Sydney666

So you are playing the role of Roberto Baggio?

Mike Rogerson

Cheers Terk. Yes, Sydney, I've looked on the editor and Roberto Baggio doesn't exist as far as FM2005 is concerned. So now I am him.

HD

Some poeple would say that was identity theft. Do you have his credit cards?

Mike Rogerson

I wish.

Mike Rogerson

Roberto Baggio was born in Caldogno in the north of Vicenza on February 18th, 1967. A precocious talent, he burst onto the Italian football scene as a sixteen year-old at his hometown club. His first full season, the 1984/5 campaign, saw him propel Vicenza into Serie B with 12 goals in 29 games.

http://www.pro-paul.net/baggio/pics/paul/vicenza/02.jpg

Baggio did not make it to Serie B, however. His performances had attracted the attentions of Serie A club Fiorentina. His first season was a nightmare – injured before he had chalked up a single goal he returned only in mid-May, scoring against Sampdoria.

http://www.pro-paul.net/baggio/pics/...rentina/04.jpg

His first full term at La Viola produced nine goals and an international call-up for the boy whose hairstyle had landed him the nickname Il Divino Codino, the “Divine Ponytail”. Baggio’s second season in Florence gave his club 17 goals from 32 games from the Italian international. His performances helped his side to the UEFA Cup Fianl, where they were beaten by Juventus. It was to be one of the great ironies of football.

Ten years previously a number of poor refereeing decisions had gone against La Viola on the final day of the Serie A season and gifted Lo Scudetto to the Turin giants. The Florentines had never forgiven their northern rivals for this ‘theft’, and when Baggio was sold to the Bianconeri for £8m there were riots in the streets of Florence.

Baggio’s form earned him a place in the Italian squad for World Cup 1990, where, at the age of 23, he shone, scoring the Goal of the Tournament against Czechoslovakia, but was largely confined to the substitutes’ bench for the tournament.

Il Divino Codino’s Juventus career was hugely successful. He scored 32 league goals in his first two seasons, and in his third contributed 28 goals in all competitions, including the UEFA Cup, which Baggio triumphantly lifted.

http://www.pro-paul.net/baggio/pics/...uventus/27.jpg

The following season Baggio scored his 100th Serie A goal, against Genoa, and was named European and World Footballer of the Year. That year, 1994, he single-handedly gave Italy a place in the World Cup Final with some exquisite performances, before injury and a Final penalty shoot-out miss all but ended his international career.

The injury persisted and Baggio contributed only 8 goals to Juve’s double –winning side. By this time a young man very much in the mould of Baggio had come to the fore, and with a fit Alessandro Del Piero in the team, Juventus offloaded Roberto to AC Milan. Fabio Capello, rarely a fan of the free-playing forward, was the Milan manager, however, and Baggio was allowed to give little to his Serie A winning club.

http://www.pro-paul.net/baggio/pics/paul/milan/06.jpg

When 1994 World Cup coach Arrigo Sacchi arrived at Milan, Baggio moved to Bologna, scoring 22 goals in his first season. Codino’s fine form earned him a move to Inter Milan, but injury and managerial changes limited Baggio’s first team chances and he moved to newly-promoted Brescia.

http://www.pro-paul.net/baggio/pics/paul/bologna/04.jpg

http://www.pro-paul.net/baggio/pics/paul/inter/13.jpg

Closer to home and the focus of a team once more, Roberto scored 33 goals in 70 games over three seasons. In his fourth season in Brescia, Baggio scored his two hundredth league goal and, at the San Siro in Milan on the final day of the season, was applauded from the field by everyone in the stadium. He had scored 205 league goals – 318 in all competitions.

http://www.pro-paul.net/baggio/pics/...scia/01/22.jpg

Roberto Baggio took a year out of football after leaving Brescia. He moved home to Vicenza and watched with a keen eye developments in the footballing world. On July 16th 2004 he was appointed manager of his local side, returning to the club he had left twenty years before.

Tyrone the Magazine

Good luck with this one Mike

Mike Rogerson

Thanks, Tyrone. I'm glad people are reading!

La Gazzetta della Vicenza
Saturday 17th July, 2004

BAGGIO IS HOME

Roberto Baggio was yesterday unveiled as the new manager of Vicenza Calcio, bringing to an end a turbulent era in the club’s history. Without a coach in over two months, and having failed to climb back into Serie A, the club appeared to be stagnating in the second division, away from its rightful place amongst the nation’s elite.

Baggio, who left the club twenty years ago for Fiorentina, was remarkably subdued at the press conference at which he was unveiled. However, he did permit a short interview with him as he left the Romeo Monti, in which he said that his message for the fans was to be patient, not to expect too much to begin with, but to trust their hometown hero to take the club back to the big stage.

Obviously delighted to have returned to the city he calls home, Baggio then jogged out onto the training surface to meet his players for the first time and to judge the squad he has at his disposal. Rumours are already circulating that he has talked to several former colleagues about the help he will need. He will almost certainly discover for himself that, whilst there are undoubtedly one or two quality players on the books at Vicenza, the squad is far too big and carries far too much dead wood. It is a matter for Baggio to decide where he aims his axe.

Mike Rogerson

La Gazzetta della Vicenza
Saturday 7th August, 2004

TREBLE SWOOP FOR BAGGIO

New Vicenza manager Roberto Baggio yesterday opened the club cheque book for the first time, strengthening his midfield and defence. At midday it was confirmed that Codino had secured the signature of young defender David Mendes da Silva from Dutch club NAC Breda for a fee of just under £500k. Director of Football Silvano Coltran, outside the club’s offices whilst the team manager was away, commented that whilst Baggio was happy with the standard of attacking options in his side, there was a slight worry in terms of depth at the back.

Meanwhile, the manager himself was in Padua bringing young attacking midfielder Gianpietro Zecchin in on a season-long loan from Padova. In the third move of the day, unemployed Spanish trialist Roberto Trashorras signed for the Biancorossi, adding options to the club’s midfield.