Not long ago, Italian football was shocked by the transfer of one of the talented young players from Fiorentina to a team nicknamed The Old Lady. Dusan Vlahovic, a name that is certainly no stranger to Serie A fans. Only 22 years old, this Belgrade-born young man has already managed to score a total of 20 goals in Serie A, with 17 for Fiorentina and three for Juventus.
Vlahovic’s move worth 70 million euros, or the equivalent of 1.1 trillion rupiah, managed to make him a mainstay on the front lines of Juventus complete with his number seven back. But although Vlahovic’s arrival to Turin was greeted with great cheer by the Zebra team’s fans, it’s different when we talk about Fiorentina-based fans. La Viola hooligans are furious. They didn’t accept it and thought Vlahovic was a fraud because he had said that he would stay at the Artemio Franchi.
The wounds felt by La Viola fans are even deeper after cases like this have repeatedly approached them. Before Dusan Vlahovic, there were already the names of Federico Chiesa, Federico Bernardeschi, to Juan Cuadrado, and Giorgio Chiellini, who decided to join Juventus.
However, even though these players actually gave Fiorentina a back stab, more than three decades ago, the name Roberto Baggio had become the player who made the hatred of Fiorentina fans towards Juventus even more peaked. Yes, apart from being seen as a team that often undermines the strength of their favorite club, the Old Lady is also often referred to by La Viola fans as a thief, because they are considered “forcibly stealing” the Italian Scudetto title in 1982.
Not to mention the case in the UEFA Cup final eight years ago, when the tournament committee issued a decision that was deemed detrimental to Fiorentina to make them lose the title. Back to Roberto Baggio, we all agree that the player who is now 55 years old deserves to be called a legend. However, the salt he sowed over the wounds of the Fiorentina fans never escaped the discussion of his dark side during his football career.
Roberto Baggio is a big player at Vicenza. He lasted three years there before finally carving out a beautiful story at the Florence-based club. Right in 1985, Roberto Baggio officially joined Fiorentina by opening page after page of a story with a brilliant record. Despite the regular injury problems that greeted him, Roberto Baggio was still able to emerge as one of the legendary players in the club’s history. He gained spectacular popularity when he joined Fiorentina. His goal record, which although “only” reached 55 seeds in 135 matches, did not at all dampen the enthusiasm of Fiorentina fans to continue to support him.
Baggio is a different person. He is considered a player who is more than just a goal achievement. The fans think, Baggio always gives the best and maximum performance under any circumstances. One of his best moments with Fiorentina was probably when he made a comeback from a long injury and managed to score a goal against Napoli to force the match to end in a 1-1 draw. From these results, Baggio managed to save his favorite club from the brink of relegation. From the story witnessed by the fans, of course they really think of Baggio as a figure who is again worthy of love.
However, the love that was so deep instantly turned into unforgettable sorrow. Baggio, three days after he failed to lead Fiorentina to beat Juventus in the 1989/90 season UEFA Cup final, suddenly appeared on media pages complete with a narrative that Juventus had managed to redeem his services worth 10 million euros. The number that was successful at that time made him the most expensive player in history.
But it turns out, after being traced, the transfer of Baggio took the name of the club’s management as the party to blame. Baggio, after being inaugurated as a Zebra team player and immediately causing such an extraordinary commotion between the line of contention between Fiorentina and Juventus, immediately clarified that this transfer was not his intention. He was forced to leave because the club was in crisis and of course he needed a lot of money to get out of the pit of destruction.
“You all should know, I was forced to accept this transfer!” Baggio said. The fans who believed Baggio’s words when they all really believed this, immediately protested massively to Fiorentina’s management. They all did not accept that the mainstay player, who was only 23 years old at the time, was sold to a club that was considered a mortal enemy. The fruit of the riots caused by Fiorentina fans over the transfer of Baggio, the streets of Florence at that time were scary. They carried out anarchic actions such as throwing stones and destroying stadium facilities. Not to forget, the throwing of Molotov cocktails that injured at least 50 people as a result of the series of riots. With Juventus alone, Baggio lasted five seasons. But keep in mind, the player does not really put his heart to Juventus. His only thought was the name Fiorentina with a penalty kick rejection against a club that made his name a living proof of a Baggio.
In a match against Fiorentina on 6 April 1991, Baggio refused to take the penalty kick awarded to Juventus. He argued that the opposing goalkeeper had understood the direction of his kick. Interestingly, Gigi de Agostini, who then acted as the executioner, failed to complete his duties properly, causing Juve to lose by a narrow score of 0-1. It didn’t stop there, when the coach pulled him out, Baggio casually accepted the purple scarf that Fiorentina fans had thrown him while taking him to the dressing room. For his actions, Baggio was widely criticized by Juventus fans. The player was even forced to apologize but the word sorry never left Baggio’s mouth.
Even more crazy, openly, Baggio said that his heart will always be “purple”. Despite being part of the Juventus squad that won the scudetto in the 1994/95 season, Baggio’s name was not maintained. At that time he began to lose the coach’s trust, with his name also slowly being shifted by a talented young player named Alessandro Del Piero. Baggio went to Milan to then join a number of other clubs before ending his career in 2004 with Brescia.
Roberto Baggio, despite playing the most games for Juventus and successfully winning several titles, will be remembered more as a Fiorentina legend. Not because of the pile of titles given, but because of the deep love for his favorite club.
ASL
