A Golden Boot, a Golden Ball, Ballon d’Or or FIFA Player of the year would have been the ultimate award that a footballer would have like to be bestowed upon. However for Italian legend, ROBERTO BAGGIO it is a different story. It was announced on November 9, 2010 that Roberto Baggio had been selected as the annual winner of the World Peace Award bestowed by Nobel Peace Prize laureates.
Baggio, who retired from football in 2004, detached himself from the game till recently when he was appointed as President of the technical sector of the Italian Football Federation. Till then, he devoted himself to charity work, helping to raise funds for hospitals, fighting bird flu and supporting the works of UN.
According to the office of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, Baggio was single out for this year World Peace Award for his long time charity work particularly in Myanmar in trying to win freedom for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and also his fundraising for victims of the Haiti earthquake.
Speaking to Italian news agengy Ansa, the Buddhist convert said, “Compared with this, other personal and professional achievements pale into insignificance. This is better than the Golden ball award”
More luckily for Baggio, Aung San Suu Kyi has been released yesterday after 7 years under house arrest. Baggio, who is in Hiroshima, to receive his accolades on Sunday was absolutely delighted about the news and told AFP "I will go to Burma (Myanmar), or rather I hope to be able to go because I tried in the past without results.”
Baggio in a career spanning 22 years, played for various clubs like Fiorentina, Juventus and AC Milan etc scoring 218 goals. For Italy, he scored 27 goals in 56 appearances, being the only Italian to have scored in three world cups. He unluckily missed the deciding penalty in 1994 World Cup Final which causes them the trophy.
In 1993, he won both the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA World Player of the year award. On 16 October 2002, Roberto Baggio was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Roberto Baggio with his skills and charm was a darling in the football fraternity but with this award his presence and absence will be felt more in the charity work that he does.
No comments:
Post a Comment