Baggio set for Azzurri swan song
ROME, Italy -- Italian legend Roberto Baggio looks set for an international swan song after announcing he will retire at the end of the season.
Azzurri coach Giovanni Trapattoni said he hoped to call up the 37-year-old for one of Italy's warm-up fixtures for Euro 2004.
"I've read that he has decided to quit and I have thought about it seriously," Trapattoni told Gazzetta dello Sport.
"Now I will speak to him. I will say to him it would be a pleasure for him to come and join us and that I would like to call him up for a match. One of the next ones, maybe against Spain on April 28.
"I would like to give him an award, a present for a wonderful career."
Baggio, nicknamed the "Divine Ponytail," scored 27 goals for Italy, winning the last of his 55 caps in 1999 against Belarus.
The highlight -- and low point -- of his international career came at the 1994 World Cup when he single-handedly carried Italy through to the final against Brazil. But Baggio's missed penalty in the shootout also sealed Italy's defeat.
Despite his impressive form since then in Serie A for Brescia, Trapattoni resisted popular demand for Baggio to be included in Italy's 2002 World Cup squad.
