Del Piero Condemns Calls For Baggio
Sunday 7th October 2001
Juventus striker Alessandro Del Piero said on Sunday that the crowd in Parma were wrong to call for Roberto Baggio as Italy struggled to a 1-0 win over Hungary.
Del Piero scored the only goal of the game as Italy secured qualification to the World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan in 2002.
However, the fans in Parma booed the team and Del Piero in particular, and were calling for Brescia's Roberto Baggio, who was not included in the squad by the national coach Geovanni Trapattoni.
Del Piero said: "I have to repeat what I said before the game and that is that no one can question Roby Baggio's talents but the fans weren't right to call his name when we weren't able to score against Hungary.
"We know that Trapattoni are going to decide on his 22 players so there was no need for that. We all want to be there but there is no need to talk about it now."
Trapattoni agreed: "I won't talk about him [Baggio] at the moment. Not until next June.
"Of course I know what Baggio can do, I signed him for Juventus remember," he said.
Del Piero added: "I am becoming more mature. I'm confident when things don't go my way and I will continue to fight.
"You have to be strong when you don't have the supporters behind you. I am very happy I scored but the whole team deserve the credit.
"It is a great team with a lot of potential. We have to very focussed in the World Cup as we have gone out the last three on penalties, not even losing a game."
