Roberto Baggio has not kicked a competitive ball since 16 May 2004, when he came off two minutes from the end of Brescia’s 4-2 defeat to AC Milan at a packed San Siro and walked into retirement. On Monday night, more than two decades later, a new generation will chase the trophy he lifted in 1993.
The 2026 Ballon d’Or ceremony takes place at the London Palladium at 20:00 GMT on Monday 26 October, the first edition staged outside France. Thirty men are in contention, among them defending champion Ousmane Dembélé, 2024 winner Rodri, eight-time holder Lionel Messi, Lamine Yamal, Kylian Mbappé and Harry Kane.
Baggio will not be in London. The Italian lives on a farm in the hills of Altavilla Vicentina, in Vicenza province, where his days revolve around animals, family and a Buddhist practice that is older than most of the 30 nominees.
1993: 142 out of 150
Baggio was 26 when he won the Ballon d’Or in 1993, taking 142 of a possible 150 points from the UEFA journalist panel and finishing well clear of Dennis Bergkamp and Eric Cantona. Juventus had taken him from Fiorentina for a world-record fee three years earlier, and he was heading into the 1994 World Cup as the player the planet watched.
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Seven months after the Ballon d’Or came the penalty in Pasadena. The farm, the animals and the quiet of Vicenza were still a lifetime away.
A Buddhist for more than 40 years
The pivot from footballer to the man he is now started with an injury in 1985. In an interview with the Italian Soka Gakkai institute, Baggio said his friend Maurizio Boldrini introduced him to Buddhism in that period and that it “completely changed” his way of seeing difficulty.
He practices Nichiren Buddhism and has done so without a break for decades.
“I have been practicing for more than 33 years and have never stopped a single day of doing Gongyo and Daimoku,” he told the Italian Soka Gakkai magazine Buddismo e Società.
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The faith has outlasted the career. In the 2021 documentary Baggio: The Divine Ponytail, as reported by World Tribune, he summed it up in a line that has followed him ever since: “Where my skills end, my faith begins.”
San Siro, and then silence
Baggio’s final match is still, for Italian supporters, one of the great goodbyes. The 37-year-old came off in the 88th minute at the San Siro, and 80,000 people stood.
Reflecting on that night years later, he said: “80,000 fans all standing to give me an applause that I’ll never be able to forget.”
On the 21st anniversary of the match last year, he returned to the moment on his own channels:
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“21 years ago I said goodbye to football. A lifetime has passed off the pitch, yet I’m still lucky enough to feel the fans’ love every single day.”
Since then, the public appearances have been rare. Italian outlets including Il Messaggero have described the Vicenza property as a quiet place away from the cities, where Baggio raises animals and keeps a Soka Gakkai study space on site. He is known to spend part of the year at a ranch in Rivera, Argentina, and he follows Boca Juniors from a distance.
Monday night, and the day after
For 24 hours, football’s attention will sit on a theater in central London. By Tuesday morning, a 2026 winner will have a trophy, a photo call and a schedule.
Baggio, meanwhile, will wake up on a farm in Vicenza, do Gongyo and Daimoku the way he has every day since the mid-1980s, and feed the animals.
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