Baggio explains why he didn’t see eye-to-eye with Lippi at Inter: ‘Tried to provoke me’

Roberto Baggio has explained why he did not see eye-to-eye with Marcello Lippi during his time at Inter towards the end of his career, and says that the former coach tried to get him to ‘spy’ on his teammates in the dressing room.

Baggio told the story of his turbulent relationship with Lippi in an extract from his recently-released autobiography, titled Luce nell’oscurita.

Baggio spent two seasons with Inter between 1998 and 2000, and in his second season in San Siro, he reunited with Lippi. The pair had previously worked together at Juventus between 1994 and 1995.

However, the pair did not always see eye to eye, and Baggio says that he was put in a difficult position when the coach asked him to report on his teammates’ behaviour in the dressing room.

Baggio also says that he was ‘put on public trial’ in front of his teammates after criticising Lippi in a newspaper interview in which he described Inter as a ‘Ferrari being driven by a traffic warden’.

“Marcello Lippi wanted to speak to me in March and asked me to give him the names of the players who might be going against him in the dressing room,” Baggio wrote (via Calciomercato.com).

“I replied in my own way: ‘Mister, I train to the maximum, you evaluate whether or not I deserve to play, but don’t ask anything else from me.

“Annoyed, Lippi tried to provoke me, to get a reaction from me. One day he shouted at me in an arrogant and aggressive manner: ‘Phenomeno, tell me the teammates that don’t suit you’. I replied with the utmost calmness: ‘Mister, tell my teammates what you asked me to do’.

“After I made a joke to a journalist saying that Inter were like a Ferrari being driven by a traffic warden, I was put on public trial in front of my teammates when we returned to training.

“But then Lippi was practically forced to play me in the play-off against Parma in Verona for Champions League qualification. I scored the two decisive goals.

“I played for my team, to honour the shirt and the fans. I was just doing my duty, with the same passion I always had: To play football and to entertain the supporters.”