The 1994 legend no missed penalty could erase
5 min readJun 2, 2026 09:54 PM IST The popstar knew before the pundits did. Madonna, sporting her own scrunched power-high ponytail and a No 15 Italy jersey, had already made her call on Roberto Baggio. On her Blonde Ambition Tour in Rome, just two days after the 1990 World Cup, she had spoken proper football: “That goal against Czechoslovakia was marvellous.” Football snobs scoffed when she added, “I didn’t know his name then, but that goal and his big green eyes conquered me.” By 1994, she had anointed him the “Cutest.” The rest of the world was catching up. The footballing flock called him the Divine Ponytail – Il Divin Codino – after he embraced Nichiren Buddhism in 1985 following a career-threatening knee injury in Campania so severe he was told he might not walk normally again. The faith he found in recovery was not incidental – it became the stillness you could see in him under pressure, the composure that looked almost unreasonable given the moments he was asked to produce it in. …
