Juventus: Ranking the 5 best trequartisti of all time

4. Roberto Baggio

Roberto Baggio — when you hear the name, the first thing that should come to your thought is “The Divine Ponytail“. Swinging it from right to left or vice versa, Baggio had a very illustrated footballing career across Italy. Besides Juventus, Baggio played professional football for three other top Italian sides in Fiorentina, AC Milan, and Inter Milan.

He stayed at Juventus for five years and bagged one Serie A title, one Coppa Italia and one UEFA Cup (currently known as the Europa League). Despite playing for seven different clubs in Italy, Baggio made the most appearances while wearing the coveted black and white shirt. Per Transfermarkt, he earned around 200 apps, garnering 115 goals in the process.

Roberto Baggio’s story revolves around so many incidents that this tiny column won’t be enough to portray the glorified account of this trequartista. With him in the squad, the Italian national side became the runners-up of the 1994 World Cup and secured third place in the 1990 World Cup. Even though not winning an international trophy might’ve been his biggest regret, Baggio is still the joint-highest Italian goalscorer of all-time in the World Cup and joint fourth-highest scorer for Italy.

Considered one of the greatest football players of all time, Baggio had to kneel before ill-fated injuries. For his individual traits, he won FIFA World Player of the Year and Ballon d’Or in 1993 and came second on the Ballon d’Or list a year later. Many believe that he would’ve won more hadn’t he surrendered his body to injuries. Having amassed countless individual honours, Baggio was ultimately included in the Italian Football Hall of Fame in 2011 for his valuable contributions to his nation.