My mother always said I have big eyes just like my father's... and I've always loved him more than myself.

I remember during the 1994 World Cup, my father called my mother after the first match with Ireland. He said to her:

'Come... I need you.'

We arrived on the day of the Nigeria match and went straight to the resort. When I saw him in the hall, I ran into his arms and said:

'Dad, I missed you... I think I've fallen in love with you.'

At that moment, I believe I won him over forever.

That day, he scored that goal at the end of the match and dedicated it to me. I still imagine how he was looking for me in the stands. Then after the match, I was in his arms. The journalists asked me:

'Your father is the strongest in the world... I know he is the best.'

We always followed him wherever he went. I remember the summer of 2000, my father was working himself to exhaustion in training with his coach. That summer, I went to see him, and I saw the disappointment in his eyes. I realized he could no longer control his knees... he always suffered so much from their pain.

Since he stopped playing, Sundays no longer existed for us. We missed the excitement of seeing him run towards the goal, dribbling past the goalkeeper slowly, then... boom! What joy for every goal he scored. We would scream in madness...

He hasn't played football since his retirement. Even when he plays with us in the garden, he gives up after the second dribble, suffering from severe knee and back pain and fearing injury. One of the things that truly makes me suffer is seeing him broken.

When he was a player, I told him: 'Dad, let's have the surgery, I'll give you my knees, I'll make them titanium, I don't need them.'

He would ask me to stop saying this... but I would have truly given them to him."

-Valentina Baggio, the daughter of Roberto Baggio.