Dino Baggio Blackburn Rovers
year. He found his scoring boots in Brittany and continued this form on his return to Auxerre, earning himself a first cap for the French national team. The 1997-98 season saw the striker score 36 times in 45 games, confirming his place in the squad for the 1998 World Cup.
At the time of France’s opening tournament fixture against South Africa, Guivarc’h had already earned half of his caps and netted the one goal he would manage, coincidentally against South Africa on his debut.
During the competition, he played in six of the seven matches, including the final, as he competed for a place with a young David Trezeguet and the more experienced Christophe Dugarry but didn’t find the net.
After the tournament, Kenny Dalglish would bring the striker to Newcastle in a deal believed to be worth just shy of £4m.
Despite his lack of World Cup goals, Guivarc’h had been in blistering form domestically and in the UEFA Cup so it is easy to see why Dalglish saw him as the ideal partner for Alan Shearer. A great plan in theory, but the Liverpool legend lasted for the first two of Guivarc’h’s games and new man Ruud Gullit was not a fan.
The new signing was restricted to just four appearances for the Magpies, only two of those being starts, scoring once against Liverpool. Just five months after signing, he was on the move again, this time heading north of the border to Glasgow Rangers.
Guivarc’h would only stay at Ibrox for eight months before returning to France with old club Auxerre before ending his playing career with another former side Guingamp in 2002.
In 2009, he was voted as the worst striker to have played in the Premier League in a Daily Mail poll, coming ahead of people like Ali Dia!
He hit back, blaming Gullit and the quality of English football, before revealing what he thought of the newspaper!
Guivarc’h’s time in England may have been disastrous but a career that brought roughly one goal every other game and a World Cup win can’t be all that bad!
To fans of a certain age, ‘The Other Baggio’ would have been seen as an ageing midfielder who produced little in the blue and white of Blackburn Rovers.
In truth, the midfielder had been one of the stars of Italy’s run to the 1994 World Cup final and part of a heralded Parma team of the mid-90s.
Having made his Serie A debut for Torino in 1990, it wasn’t long before giants Juventus came calling. Baggio signed for the Old Lady in 1991 and was immediately loaned to Inter for the season.
On his return to Juve, he joined namesake Roberto and David Platt in a side that would go on to win the UEFA Cup in 1993. The then 22-year-old was a key player in that success, netting five goals in six games as Dortmund were beaten over two legs.
When he joined Rovers on loan in 200304, manager Graeme Souness used Baggio out of position and possibly mistook him for Roberto!
He had been one of Italy’s key performers in his defensive midfield role at USA ’94 and even scored twice as the Azzurri ended up in the heartbreaking position of runners-up. After the tournament, he would be transferred to Parma to join a side that contained Tomas Brolin, Gianfranco Zola and Faustino Asprilla.
Another UEFA Cup victory in which Baggio became the highest scorer in UEFA Cup finals and some agonisingly close failures in the quest for a scudetto followed before he would achieve a third UEFA Cup winner’s medal in 1999 as Parma overcame Marseille 3-0 in Moscow. Baggio was now one of the key men in a squad containing huge names like Buffon, Thuram, Cannavaro, Veron and Crespo just four years before winding down his career in the company of Nils-eric Johansson, Corrado Grabbi and Jon Stead.
The former Torino man would play 12 times for the Ewood Park outfit and score once before returning to his parent club Lazio and spending time on loan at Ancona and bringing the curtain down on his illustrious career in Serie B with Triestina.
He finished having played 330 Serie A matches, 60 matches for his country and games for some of Italy’s biggest clubs as well as pocketing multiple medals along the way. If only Blackburn had got their hands on him a decade earlier!