IL DIVIN CODINO

Many moons ago, I was enchanted by Roberto Baggio.  Memories of him came flooding in when I read a news article about him in the newspaper today.  Who is he and why what made me fascinated by him?  Baggio is considered one of the finest footballers (if not the finest) Italy has produced.  The 43 year old retired from football in 2004 after playing for Fiorentina, Juventus and AC Milan and starring for Italy in three World Cups but not winning even one.  I became a fan of his when I saw him playing in the 3 World Cups.  I admired him for the magical way he played on the field.  He was simply spell-binding.  Ahem!  In his younger days, Baggio was also good to look at.  I was also fascinated that a man from a Catholic background could make up his mind to give up his own religion and turn to Buddhism.  It took great resolve and courage.  That made me admire him even more.

Roberto Baggio in his younger days.  Handsome, right?

In his home nation, Baggio is known as Il Divin Codino (The Divine Ponytail), for the hairstyle he wore for most of his career and his Buddhist background.  If I am not mistaken, he converted from Catholicism to Buddhism in 1988 when he was around 21 years of age.  By the way, he no longer sports the ponytail but he is still a Buddhist until this day.

Baggio is a member of the Soka Gakkai International Buddhist Organization.  He embraced Buddhism during his long convalescence from an injury while playing football.  Born on 18 February, 1967, Baggio was from a typically Catholic family from Italy’s staunchly Catholic Veneto region. However to him Catholicism was more a habit than anything else. One of the catalyst of his conversion to Buddhism was the conversations he had with a Buddhist friend, Maurizio Boldrini.  These provided him with the perceptual framework to make sense of the suffering he was going through at that moment in his life.

He was quoted as saying:
“I had lost faith in myself, went out very little and was feeling very melancholy. I started to read about Buddhism, then one day, on 1 January 1988, I knocked on Maurizio’s door at half past seven in the morning and said ‘I have to start my journey now’. I understood that I had to react. I had to find the courage to live. The road of faith was like a form of training in spiritual courage."

After his retirement from football, Baggio went to live with his wife in a ranch in Argentina.  However, he also took on the task of global ambassador for the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation in 2005 and campaigned for an end to starvation. He also set up his own charitable organisation, Heroes Company, in 2007, donating artificial limbs to people who had been injured by landmines in Laos.

The news that I read was about Baggio agreeing to become director of the Italian Football Federation’s technical staff, a job that entails working with young players and coaches.

Sources:
http://archives.thestar.com.my/last365days/default.aspx?query=roberto+baggio
http://au.fourfourtwo.com/features/5146,roberto-baggio-italys-finest-no10.aspx?r=rss
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/aug/08/planet-sport-roberto-baggio-italy