Roberto Baggio - International Career

International Career

Baggio totalled 27 goals in 56 caps for his national team, the fourth-highest of all time for Italy, tied with Alessandro Del Piero, who managed this tally in 91 appearances however. He was initially called up for one Italy-U21 Match in 1987, although he was an unused substitute. His first professional International call-up was given to him by then Italy Manager Azeglio Vicini, and he made his first appearance for Italy on 16 November 1988, at the age of 21, in the International friendly match against the Netherlands, which was won by Italy 1-0. He scored his first goal for Italy on 22 April 1989, from a free-kick against Uruguay in an International friendly in Verona, which ended in a 1-1 draw. In the friendly match against Bulgaria on 20 September 1989, Baggio scored the 500th goal of the Italian National Team in Italy. He later added another goal. He is the only Italian player ever to score in three World Cups with a total of 9 career World Cup goals, which puts him even with Christian Vieri and Paolo Rossi as Italy's top World Cup scorers. For all his talent he was never rewarded with a victory in an international competition. Despite his performances at World Cups, he has never played for Italy in a European Championship. Baggio was not called up very often for the Euro 1992 Qualification matches, only making 3 appearances and scoring 2 goals, as Italy failed to qualify for the tournament finishing second in their group behind the Soviet Union. After the 1994 World Cup, Sacchi and Baggio infamously had a falling out and Baggio was no longer called up to the national team, missing out on Euro 1996, despite winning the Scudetto with Milan in 1996. After leading Italy to the final of the 1994 World Cup, scoring 5 goals in the process, he infamously missed the deciding penalty in the final of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, which contributed to Italy losing the trophy to Brazil.