To each his own. Keep Owen, Rooney and company, we keep Baggio. The ranking of "20 most overrated footballers of all timei”, compiled with a certain modesty by the English of the Telegraph, puts one of the few Italian monuments in twelfth place, one of the very few names which, thanks to the fact that it is not immediately identifiable with any of the great Italian teams in particular, and also thanks to the patina of time, manages to make everyone agree, or almost, even on these quarrelsome shores.
And so Roberto Baggio would be one of the great overrated in the history of football. According to the Telegraph, the Divine Codino would have often missed the big matches, and the fact that he has never won a major tournament with the blue shirt would be "a stain on his international notebook".
Strange things to say about someone who won a UEFA Cup, when the UEFA Cup was still serious business, scoring a brace in the final. Or for someone who, with five goals in three matches between the round of 120, quarterfinals and semifinals, dragged his national team to the World Cup final. Then, of course, there were XNUMX minutes without legs, played by a very injured player, and that penalty kicked into the sky in Pasadena that still hurts a little when you think about it.
However, as someone said, "it's not by these details that you judge a player". Or, as Baggio himself said, "penalties are missed only by those who have the courage to throw them", and who in any case reached the World Cup final, I would add.
And therefore, despite his career with the clubs not being up to his fame (the only two championships, in 94'/'95 and '95/'95, he essentially won as a reserve, and fouls on both sides dei Navigli), Robibaggio (all attached) for the Italians remains the hero of two worlds, the one who with the blue shirt he forgot every breath and throughout the 90s (those in which our number never came out in the penalty lottery) it made us dream and come close to great victories. And that's enough for us.
For the rest, the Telegraph ranking, which is perhaps even more random than many other rankings, because it is based on a concept that is difficult to grasp such as that of "overvaluation" (compared to whom? Or what?) offers interesting and other less . At the head is another of our standard-bearers, Mario Balotelli, but perhaps no one will be indignant about this.
Then, at the foot of the podium completed by Robinho and Falcao, Zlatan Ibrahimovic appears surprisingly, followed by the highly overrated David Luiz and then on, up to the carneade Kinkladze, who occupies the twentieth position. Among the English are three contemporary players: Jack Wishere, Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney.
But perhaps two others are missing: David Beckham and Michael Owen, who shouldn't struggle to find a place in such a ranking. They, with the three lions shirt, have never missed an important match. They simply didn't even get there if they were played with.
