Eddy Baggio (born 23 August 1974) is an Italian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who is ...

who played as a striker.

Early life

Born in

Caldogno Caldogno is a town and ''comune'' near Vicenza in Italy. It has a population of 11,337 inhabitants. The Villa Caldogno Nordera in its territory is attributed to architect Andrea Palladio. It is the birthplace of the football player Roberto Baggi ...

, Italy, in the province of Vicenza, Veneto, he is the youngest of the eight children of Matilde and Fiorindo Baggio. Eddy is also the younger brother of the legendary Italian footballer

Roberto Baggio Roberto Baggio (; born 18 February 1967) is an Italian former professional footballer who mainly played as a second striker, or as an attacking midfielder, although he was capable of playing in several offensive positions. He is the former pre ...

, who played as a

second striker Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

for

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, but unlike Roberto, Eddy never made his

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

debut. Like several of his siblings, Eddy was named after a famous athlete, in his case the Belgian cyclist

Eddy Merckx Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx (, ; born 17 June 1945), better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional road and track bicycle racer who is among the most successful riders in the history of competitive cycling. His victorie ...

, whilst his older brother Roberto was named after two of his father's Italian footballing idols,

Roberto Boninsegna Roberto Boninsegna ( born 13 November 1943) is an Italian former football player, who mainly played as a forward. After retiring, he worked as a football manager. As a player, he represented the Italian national side at two World Cups, reaching ...

and

Roberto Bettega Roberto Bettega (; born 27 December 1950) is an Italian former footballer who played as a forward. A prolific and athletic player, Bettega is mostly remembered for his successful time at his hometown club Juventus, where he won several titles a ...

. Neither of the brothers are related to the former Italian

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Dino Baggio Dino Baggio (born 24 July 1971) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. Throughout his career, he played for several Italian clubs, and won the UEFA Cup three times, twice with Parma and once with Juven ...

Club career

Baggio started his youth and professional career at

A.C. Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fol ...

in 1991, the club where his older brother Roberto started to shine, and he was eventually promoted to the first team during the 1993–94 season, in

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

. He left the club 4 years after Roberto, and joined two different

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football (soccer), football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1 ...

teams within two years: first Palazzolo, and later

Prato Prato ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato. The city lies in the north east of Tuscany, at the foot of Monte Retaia, elevation , the last peak in the Calvana chain. With more than 200,000 i ...

in 1995. With Palazzolo, he scored on his professional debut, which came on 28 August 1994, in a 1–1 away draw against

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

, on the opening match-day of the 1994–95 Serie C1 season. Baggio then joined Serie C2 team ''Giorgione'' in November 1995, and played there for 3 years, reaching the semi-finals of the Serie C1 promotion play-offs during the 1996–97 season. He then joined

A.C. Ancona Associazione Calcio Ancona, commonly referred to as Ancona, was an Italian football club based in Ancona, Marche. It was founded in 2004 as the phoenix club of defunct 1905 club Unione Sportiva Anconitana, which changed its name to Ancona Calc ...

and

Ascoli Calcio 1898 Ascoli Calcio 1898 F.C., commonly referred to as Ascoli, is an Italian football club based in Ascoli Piceno, Marche. The club was formed in 1898 and currently plays in Serie B. The team traditionally play in vertical black and white stripes. H ...

, who were competing in Serie C1 at that time, scoring 11 goals in 32 appearances for the former side. He returned to Ancona in 2000 and made his

debut during the

2000–01 Serie B The Serie B 2000–01 was the sixty-ninth tournament of this competition played in Italy since its creation. Teams Siena, Crotone, Cittadella and Ancona had been promoted from Serie C, while Torino, Venezia FC, Cagliari and Piacenza had been ...

season. In the following years, he changed club every season:

Calcio Catania Catania S.S.D., commonly known as Catania, is an Italian football club based in the city of Catania, Sicily, that plays in . Originally founded in 1908 as ''Associazione Sportiva pro Educazione Fisica'', the club boasts 17 appearances in the ...

(Serie C1),

Salernitana Calcio 1919 Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919, commonly referred to as Salernitana, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its hi ...

(Serie B), home-town club

Vicenza Calcio L.R. Vicenza, commonly referred to as Vicenza, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Vicenza, Veneto. Founded in 1902 as Associazione del Calcio in Vicenza, they became Lanerossi Vicenza in 1953, then Vicenza Calcio from 1990 ...

(Serie B), Catania again (Serie B),

Spezia Calcio 1906 Spezia Calcio is a professional football club based in La Spezia, Liguria, Italy. Spezia Calcio was founded in 1906 by the Swiss banker Hermann Hurni (or Hurny in some documents), who played for the early Crystal Palace amateur teams in Londo ...

(Serie C1), and he finally settled in

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...

. With Salernitana, on 15 December 2002, he scored his 100th professional goal in a 2–2 home draw against

league leaders

Triestina Unione Sportiva Triestina Calcio 1918, commonly referred to as Triestina, is an Italian football club based in Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Originally founded in 1918, the club has been re-established several times in its history. As of the ...

from a penalty; his brother

Roberto The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

scored his 300th professional goal on the same day (their father's birthday), also from a penalty. In January 2008 he was sold to

Serie C2 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. Usually it consisted of 36 teams, but in the 2011–12 season, there were 41 teams divided geographically into two divisions of 2 ...

club Portosummaga, but managed to play only five times. In August 2008 he accepted an offer from Sangiovannese. In total, he played 86

games, scoring 18 goals; throughout his career, he scored 130 goals in all competitions, including Serie B, Serie C1 & C2, the

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

, and the

Coppa Italia Serie C Coppa Italia Serie C ( it, Serie C Italian Cup), formerly named Coppa Italia Lega Pro, is a straight knock-out based competition involving teams from Serie C in Italian football first held in 1972. Format There are a total of six rounds in the c ...

, although he never played in Serie A.

International career

Baggio was called up to the Italy Under-17 side three times in 1991, and represented the team on two occasions. He was a member of the Italy team that took part at the 1991 Under-17 World Championship.

Managerial career

From August 2011, he coached one of the

"Allievi" youth formations. From the 2012–13 season, he became a coach for the

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

youth side, coaching Fiorentina's Allievi Lega Pro. During the 2013–14 season, he was promoted to coach the Giovanissimi nazionali.

Honours

;

Spezia La Spezia (, or , ; in the local Spezzino dialect) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second largest city ...

: 2004–05

References

External links

* *
Profile at aic.football.it

Profile at figc.it
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baggio, Eddy 1974 births Living people Sportspeople from the Province of Vicenza Italian men's footballers Italy men's youth international footballers AC Ancona players Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC players Catania FC players US Salernitana 1919 players LR Vicenza players Spezia Calcio players Pisa SC players AC Prato players Serie B players Serie C players Men's association football forwards Footballers from Veneto