World Cup but it was astonisabilithing nonetheless. He was everything you would want in a forward player. A superb football brain combined with supreme technical ability. He was as comfortable as an out-and-out striker, a false 9, a winger or as an attacking midfielder. He was a truly inspirational player in an age where we use that word about many players not fit to lace his boots. Like all great players, he was the master of the ball. He could make it dance. He could make it sing. Images of Baggio usually involve him slaloming - that word again - past defenders. And that word is right. He went past defenders like a great skier goes past gates. He had that beautiful ability to take the ball as close as possible to the defender before somehow jinking past or around them. Sometimes the ball is so close to the defensive player one wonders how Baggio got around him or how a fine defender has managed to be confuse and bamboozle. This is a trait that Baggio shares with only a handful of players - Messi, Cruyff, Prosinecki, and Laudrup all spring to mind. The truly great players are beautifully balanced when they run with the ball, able to hurdle challenges, whilst seeing the game around them in slow motion. They do not, like the leaden thinkers of the game, need to hare or blast past people. They understand that to really torment an opponent - to show real devilry -