How Fiorentina lost Roberto Baggio to Juventus

To understand why Florence rioted over a transfer, start eight years earlier. On 16 May 1982 Fiorentina and Juventus went into the last day of the Serie A season level on points, both playing away. Juventus won 1–0 at Catanzaro with a Liam Brady penalty and took their 20th league title. Fiorentina drew 0–0 at Cagliari, where Francesco Graziani had a second-half goal disallowed. Fiorentina's supporters decided the title had been stolen, and gave Juventus a line that stuck: "Meglio secondi che ladri". Better to be second than thieves.

A season on the road

By 1989–90 Fiorentina were homeless. The Stadio Comunale was being rebuilt for the World Cup, so they played their home games in Perugia and Pistoia. The league season went badly. After the 30th round of matches Bruno Giorgi was replaced as coach by Graziani, the man whose goal had been chalked off at Cagliari, in his first job as a coach. Fiorentina fought relegation to the last day and stayed up by beating Atalanta 4–1. They finished 12th.

Roberto Baggio, 23, had the best season of his career so far. He scored 17 Serie A goals, a total bettered among the league's forwards only by Marco van Basten, and 19 in all competitions. Europe was a different story from the league. Fiorentina knocked out Atlético Madrid, Sochaux, Dinamo Kiev, Auxerre and Werder Bremen to reach the UEFA Cup final. Baggio's only goal of the run was a penalty.

The opponents in the final were Juventus. The first leg in Turin, on 2 May 1990, went 3–1 to Juventus. Roberto Galia scored for them in the third minute and Fiorentina equalised seven minutes later, but one of the Juventus goals came after Pierluigi Casiraghi shoved Celeste Pin. Pin called Juventus thieves.

Fiorentina couldn't even play the second leg near home. UEFA had suspended the stadium in Perugia after trouble involving Fiorentina supporters at the semi-final against Werder Bremen. The return match on 16 May was moved to the Partenio in Avellino, more than 500km from Florence. It finished 0–0, and Juventus took the cup 3–1 on aggregate.

The sale

Fiorentina were owned by the Pontello family, and Flavio Pontello was president. The idea of selling Baggio had been in the air for months. On 18 February 1990 supporters protested outside the Pontellos' house against it, and that month Baggio told La Gazzetta dello Sport that he did not want to go to Juventus.

The contract was signed on the evening of 17 May, the day after the final in Avellino. It was announced on 18 May. Juventus paid a world-record fee, which made Baggio the most expensive footballer on the planet. Baggio's agent was Antonio Caliendo. A Gazzetta headline put it "Alla Juve per forza non per amore": to Juve by force, not for love. "I've done everything to stay," Baggio said.

The trouble started on 18 May in Piazza Savonarola, outside the club's offices. Fans threw stones and bottles, set bins alight and broke through police lines, and the police charged again and again into the night. Supporters also went to Piazzale Donatello, where the Pontellos lived, and damaged the family's building sites. Police officers were among the injured. The next day the protests reached Coverciano, the national team's training centre, where Baggio was with the Italy squad preparing for the World Cup. He needed a security escort to get in.

"They used to take to the streets to protest against Fiat," said the Juventus president, Gianni Agnelli. "Now it's to stop Baggio going to Juve." Giampiero Boniperti was shorter still: "If he doesn't want to come to us, so much the worse for him."

Flavio Pontello's son, Ranieri, has since said: "My father took those days of protest very badly."

New owners

The Pontellos did not stay much longer. In June 1990 they sold Fiorentina to the Cecchi Gori family, the film producer Mario and his son Vittorio. According to Guerin Sportivo, Pontello had been negotiating with Cecchi Gori and Juventus at the same time, and Cecchi Gori had wanted Baggio at the centre of his plans.

Baggio was gone all the same, and the new owners rebuilt without him. Sebastião Lazaroni, who had coached Brazil at the World Cup that summer, became coach. Diego Fuser arrived on loan from Lazio, Massimo Orlando came from Reggina, Stefano Borgonovo returned from Milan, and the Romanian Marius Lăcătuș and the goalkeeper Gianmatteo Mareggini joined too. Dunga stayed. Early in the season they lost 4–0 at Roma.

6 April 1991

Baggio's first game against Fiorentina was in Florence on 6 April 1991, at the Stadio Comunale, renamed the Artemio Franchi later that year. He wore Juventus's number 10. Gigi Maifredi's Juventus were fourth, eight points behind the leaders Sampdoria with seven games left. Lazaroni's Fiorentina were 12th.

Fuser scored in the 41st minute with a free-kick from the edge of the area that went in off the post. In the second half the referee, Lo Bello, gave Juventus a penalty. Baggio was their penalty taker, and he would not take it. He had told Maifredi before the game that if Juventus got a penalty, he would not shoot. Maifredi's explanation was that Mareggini might guess which way Baggio would go. Luigi De Agostini took it instead, and Mareggini saved.

Maifredi took Baggio off later in the half, and Angelo Alessio replaced him. As Baggio walked off, someone in the crowd threw down a Fiorentina scarf. He picked it up, and the stadium applauded him.

Fiorentina won 1–0. Juventus finished the season without a place in Europe. Fiorentina finished 12th, exactly where they had been with Baggio. "Deep in my heart," Baggio said, "I'm always Viola."

Thirty years later De Agostini was still being asked about the penalty. "I went to a World Cup," he said, "but people remember me for that miss."