While Roberto Baggio can put his cult status largely down to the long list of Italian clubs he created lasting memories with, his relationship with the FIFA World Cup – the biggest stage of them all – led to his name garnering mass appeal.

Over three tournaments, Il Divin Codino made his mark on numerous occasions – producing dazzling displays that were beamed into the homes of football fanatics around the globe.

Here, Destination Calcio takes a look at his greatest goals from the tournaments that helped cement his legendary status.

Dan Cancian: Italy vs Czechoslovakia – Italia ’90 Group Stage

The Italia ‘90 World Cup is a curious paradox. Played against the backdrop of some of the most iconic stadiums in the country that was home to the best league in the world at the time, the tournament was the perfect stage for football’s showpiece event.

And that is before we even get to the fact it featured some of the greatest players of all time decked out in some of the best kits you’ll ever see.

Italia ‘90 famously changed the public perception of football in England and no other tournament has done as much to turbocharge the wave of nostalgia that has seemingly washed over every aspect of life in the past five years.

Peel the curtain back a little, however, and the football on the pitch was seldom as thrilling as the Nessun Dorma-soundtracked drama off it.

There were, of course, brilliant exceptions such as Roberto Baggio’s goal against Czechoslovakia in the hosts’ third group game. Already established as one of the Serie A’s best players, the then 23-year-old had almost been at the centre of a riot just before the World Cup began when he joined Juventus from Fiorentina in an £8m deal.

Baggio may have dominated the headlines, but he didn’t even come off the bench in Italy’s first two games, as coach Azeglio Vicini opted to partner Gianluca Vialli with Andrea Carnevale.

It all changed in Rome on June 19, when the Juventus No 10 made his World Cup debut. Baggio, still shorn of the ponytail that would command its own “divine” moniker, was 78 minutes into a solid if unspectacular performance when he received a pass wide out on the left on the halfway line from Giuseppe Giannini.

The duo exchanged passes again before Baggio set off, ignoring Paolo Maldini’s overlap to his left and dismissing options to his right. He may have been 40 yards out, but Italy’s No 15 had made his mind up.

He cut inside avoiding a lunge from Ivan Hasek that zeroed in on his ankle, before accelerating as he took on the backpedalling Miroslav Kadlec, who was twisted one way and then the other as Baggio shimmied his way past him, despite touching the ball just three times in the process.

By the time the Czechoslovakia defender finally faced the right way it was far too late, Baggio stroking the ball past the wrong-footed Jan Stejskal and into the bottom corner to seal a 2-0 win.

The goal seemed to release months of angst and tension that had built up inside Baggio, who slid onto the Stadio Olimpico turf, covering his face as bedlam erupted around him. 

It was part relief, part astonishment at his own supreme talent.

David Ferrini: Italy vs Bulgaria – USA ’94 Semi Final

If Baggio could go back in time to 1994 and make a birthday wish list, a bionic hamstring would be high on the list, just under a spare knee. 

While USA ’94 is largely remembered for the shootout between Italy and Brazil, it’s the list of Baggio’s match-winning goals that stands out for his cult worshippers.

Italy had only made that infamous final courtesy of Baggio’s extraordinary contribution throughout the knockout stages, a list of stunning strikes, one better than the other – the best saved for last against Bulgaria.

Arrigo Sacchi’s side staggered aimlessly in the group stage and slowly went through the gears against Nigeria and Spain. The turbo injection came during the first half against Hristo Stoichkov’s Bulgarians, who were put to the sword by King Roberto himself. 

While Baggio’s first goal – you know, the throw-in, the diagonal jinking run and curling finish – is probably the prettiest of his five-goal haul in the States, I can’t go past the technical brilliance of that deadly cross-goalkeeper volley from the right half space, the second of two lethal blows delivered five minutes apart.

Baggio rolled back the months to his Juventus best, transposing his Serie A skillset onto the world arena, putting his laces over the ball to bury the goal which cemented Italy’s date with brutal destiny in Pasadena. Just a few minutes before Baggio’s hamstring would eventually go, Demetrio Albertini’s delicate ball over the Bulgarian defence allowed him to run at full speed through the defensive line, pick his spot and take the scoreline to 2-0. Job done.

At 27, Italy’s greatest-ever Baggio scored five of the Nazionale’s six goals throughout the elimination rounds (Dino Baggio also scored against Spain), the ultimate being his second sizzling semi-final strike at Foxborough. 

The Nation’s most famous Buddhist deserves more credit for what he did on the world stage. As the best footballer the 90s ever saw, Baggio helped Italy to bronze and silver World Cup medals, received the Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards, won two consecutive Serie A titles with two different clubs during the greatest-ever era of domestic football, lashing in 323 of the best goals you’ll ever see.

Gianfranco Zola, Baggio’s understudy at USA ’94, was right to include him in his best teammates XI.

Emmet Gates: Italy vs Austria – France ’98 Group Stage

What does redemption look like? Look no further than Baggio at France ’98.

To say Baggio had been put through the ringer in the period between USA ’94 and France ’98 would be an understatement.

Vilified in his homeland for the penalty miss in the US, Baggio’s career went into a slow decline in the four years between World Cups.

Two Scudetti secured with Juventus and Milan couldn’t mask the pain of that mistake from 12 yards in July 1994. 

Baggio’s Azzurri career fell off a cliff, with his relationship with Arrigo Sacchi deteriorating to the point where Sacchi essentially ignored him for the remaining two years of his reign.

Between September 1994 and June 1998 Baggio started only two games for his country. Juventus discarded him in the summer of 1995; Milan did the same two years later. A move to Parma collapsed after Carlo Ancelotti rejected him.

Baggio, many felt, was yesterday’s news. Haunted by Pasadena and feeling the accumulative effect of his injuries that had slowed him down. The nimble genius who tormented defences in his Fiorentina and early Juve years had been consigned to history.

A move to Bologna aged 30 resurrected his career. Twenty-two goals in Serie A would be a career best and, with Sacchi gone, Cesare Maldini brought Italy’s most-beloved footballer to France as a reserve to the new golden boy — Alessandro Del Piero.

The penalty scored against Chile in Italy’s opener exorcised demons, to an extent, yet it was his overall performance that pleased many. His assist for Bobo Vieri remains one of the tournament’s finest.

He produced another assist in the 3-0 win against Cameroon, but was dropped to the bench for the final game of the group stage against Austria.

Now 31 and sans codino, Baggio looked sleeker than he’d done in a few years and was now viewed as one of the main senators of the dressing room. 

He entered the pitch against Austria in the 73rd minute, and with one minute remaining scored his ninth — and final — World Cup goal. 

Seeing Francesco Moriero’s inward pass, Pippo Inzaghi produced a marvellous little dummy for Baggio. Inzaghi then spun in behind the Austrian defence and waited for Baggio’s pass.

Baggio, as expected, found Inzaghi with little trouble and ghosted into the middle of the box.

Inzaghi, as he so often did, had beaten the offside trap and, with Baggio unmarked in the centre of the goal, the then-Juventus striker rolled the ball across for Baggio to stroke home.

It was a lovely little give-and-go between two players who rarely played together.

It wasn’t the greatest Baggio goal seen at a World Cup, but it was his first from open play in the competition since the scintillating semi final performance against Bulgaria four years prior, when the world looked a very different place for The Divine Ponytail.

Here in Paris he was no longer on that pedestal, but you’d have to have a heart of stone not to be pleased for Baggio. A rebirth that eased some of the Pasadena pain.