Halfway through the first half of Italy's 1-0 World Cup win against Hungary in Parma last Saturday night, a strange chant went up from disgruntled punters. Even though Italy were on target for an easy Group Eight win, four points clear of second-placed Romania, the tifosi (all 20,545 of them) were not pleased.
The Italian football fan has a refined palate. Thus it was that Italy's less than brilliant start last Saturday night did not satisfy him one bit. So what was the chant? "Rubbish"? "Back to the factory"? "Bring on So and So?". No, the chant that echoed around Parma's little Tardini stadium concerned a player who was not even in the stadium, let alone on the substitutes' bench - the Little Prince himself, Roberto Baggio (below).
At 34 years of age , Baggio continues to be Baggio - a player of exquisite touch and brilliant intuition with a penchant for goalscoring. Just at the moment, even though these days he plays for little Brescia, he is riding high in second place in the Serie A goalscorers' chart with four in five games.
That form, allied to the fact that he has always been one of Italy's most popular sporting heroes, means that Baggio was on the minds of many as Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni prepared his side for last Saturday's final qualifier.
Baggio himself, however, threw some mischievous petrol on the burning fire of contention that always surrounds the Italian team when saying in an interview last week: "My dream is to go to the World Cup finals and just to be part of the expedition, I would carry Trapattoni's bags for him. It's obvious, though, that I'll get the call-up only if I merit it on the basis of my form."
Enough said. A nationwide debate was guaranteed. Baggio (below) became the ghost that haunted the Italian team's training camp. Eventually an exasperated Trapattoni could stand it no more, exclaiming at a news conference late in the week: "That's enough. From now on, I'm only going to talk about players who are here with us".
If the Baggio question was topical before last Saturday night, it was positively hot following the fans' chants. The fan chorus, by the way, came as a wicked response to a couple of misses by Juventus player Alessandro Del Piero, the man most widely perceived as having replaced Baggio in the side.
Senior players in the team admitted to finding the whole thing just a little offensive. "It seems to me that the chants in favour of Baggio in the first half, just after Del Piero had missed a couple of chances, were entirely out of place," commented captain Paolo Maldini, adding: "There was too much talk about this (Baggio) during the week and one or two people let it go to their heads."
Even on the morning after the match, the Baggio issue was still hot. When one TV reporter tried to ask Trapattoni what he made of the timing of Baggio's news conference last week, the Italian coach paused for a second and, grinning broadly, said: "I tell you what, let's do something nice. Just ask me another question".
Remarkably, Baggio is likely to be a talking point between now and next May - provided, of course, he remains fit and well and in his current splendid form. Everybody seems to love him, every coach seems to appreciate him.
Yet, in his heart of hearts, Trapattoni probably reckons he can do just fine without him in South Korea and Japan next summer, and for two reasons.
Firstly, he has an "embarras di richesse" when it comes to strikers and playmakers. At the moment, people such as Del Piero, Francesco Totti, Christian Vieri, Filippo Inzaghi, Vincenzo Montella and Marco Delvecchio would all appear to be ahead of Baggio.
Even more important, however, is the "Baggio-effect", the possible problems that could be created by taking Italy's best known footballer to the World Cup in the role of reserve. It would require just one bad game from the likes of Totti or Del Piero for the fans (and sections of the media) to start invoking the presence of Baggio.
Ironically, those fans who chanted Baggio's name during last Saturday night's game probably did him a disservice by upping the ante.
If we had to bet on it, we would suggest that Roberto Baggio will be watching the next World Cup finals on TV.
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