This card shows Roberto Baggio, was born on the 18th of February, 1967, in Caldogno, Italy. The card tells us that he was the 1994 European and World Player of the Year, but does not mention that he would later become the President of the technical section of the Italian Football Federation, nor something even more important, that he is also a Buddhist.
Buddhism is both a religion and also a philosophy. And the man we call "Buddha" was born Siddhartha Gautama, who took his new name from the word "budhi", which means to awaken, to become enlightened, something that only happened to him when he was thirty-five years old. Before that he had been a member of a high born family, but had discovered that their way of life did not give him pleasure.
Buddhism is often called a gentle religion, because it asks its followers to be kind, and moral, and to suffer injustices by developing awareness of peace and love. And Mr. Baggio credits Buddhist beliefs with keeping him on the right path through the many challenges that he faced along his career, not least his missed penalty shootout, against Brazil, in the final of the 1994 World Cup.
In fact he discovered Buddhism through accident, in more ways than one, for in 1985 he was badly injured, and he discovered the faith during his recovery.
In 2002, he became a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and since then he has not shied from taking on sometimes difficult challenges, so much so that he was awarded the Nobel "Man of Peace" title in 2010.
Now at first I could not track this set down in our original British Trade Indexes, and it is too late for the updated edition, which is pre-1970 issues only. It does, however, appear, under another name, "Europe`s Best", at the Trading Card Database, and there is a checklist, along with a page showing all the different packets which were available. These reveal that if you collected the tokens off the sides you could send them up and receive football postcards in exchange, which turn out to be dual branded, "Barratt Football Candy Sticks" at the top, and "Match Football Magazine" at the bottom.
Curiously, I have tracked down the postcards, in our original British Trade Index part IV, where they are listed as
Barratt Football - Match Football Magazine. 148 x 105. Back ruled as postcard. Twelve groupings .. BAR-143.
The groupings are each of six cards, these being, in number order
- Europe`s Best
- Football Action
- Great Defenders
- Great Goalkeepers
- Great Grounds
- Great Managers
- Midfield Dynamos
- Top Strikers
- Top Strikers (2)
- Winners in 1992
- The World`s Greatest Teams
Though I have to add that this may not be our set, for "Winners in 1992" seems rather outdated.