the balancing

http://balancingresbonsibility.blogspot.comAs a researcher in your first-ever faculty position, you have recruited the people for your new laboratory: a skilled technician, a promising postdoctoral fellow, your first graduate student.

ROBERTO DONADONI

Roberto Donadoni was born September 9, 1963 in Cisano Bergamasco, a small town outside of Bergamo. He was a cornerstone of the powerhouse AC Milan teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s and one of the pioneers of Major League Soccer, where he played two seasons for the MetroStars. Donadoni started his career with his hometown team,Atalanta, in 1982. He transferred to Milan in 1986 and became a mainstay in the team. Usually playing a left midfield role, Donadoni was a vital fixture in a team that won five Serie A titles, three European Cups, three European Super Cups, and 2 Toyota Cups. A member of the Italian national team, he played in the 1990 and 1994 World Cups, helping Italy to third and second place finishes respectively. In the 1990 World Cup, he was one of the unlucky Italians that missed a penalty against Argentina in the semi-finals. Italy were eliminated, and Donadoni never took another penalty in his career. The MetroStars of MLS made him a centerpiece of their franchise when they signed him in 1996. While with the Metros, he was recalled to the Italian national team and was widely considered their best player at Euro 96, at the age of 32. He came back to MLS, but in the league's first two formative years, Donadoni's class was often wasted. He still proved a spectacular performer, being named to the league Best XI in 1996. Unfortunately, Donadoni's genius could not bring the MetroStars any success. Berlusconi described Donadoni as a player that could "light up any stadium".He went back to AC Milan after the 1997 MLS season, and promptly helped them to another Serie A title, his sixth. He ended his career by playing two games with Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia. Never a big scorer, Donadoni scored just 21 goals for Milan and 6 for the MetroStars. He added 5 for Italy in 63 caps. After retiring as a player, he coached Livorno(while in Serie B) and Genoa. Now, Livorno has called him back and he is having a succesful run as their head coach, leading them to a first year "Salvezza"(avoiding relegation

Here's the great Gianfranco Zola. Zola was born on July 5, 1966 in Oliena, a small town of 8,000 people in Sardegna. He was a Cagliari fan from his birth. He started playing with his town's team, Corrasi. His father, Ignazio, was even president for some time. In 1984 he started playing professionally with the Sardinian team Nuorese. In 1986 Gianfranco joined another Sardinian team, Sassari Torres. He won the '87 Serie C2 championship with them, scoring 8 goals in 30 games. In 1989, after three years with Sassari, Napoli bought Zola. He was used as a substitute to Diego Maradona (which meant he didn't play much).Napoli won the Scudetto that year, and he played a few games, scoring 2 goals. He was even dubbed an Italian Maradona, with many similarities to the Argentinian, most notably his height . Maradona left Napoli and left Zola his #10 shirt and named Zola his heir. He soon became famous and feared by opponents, even for free kicks, where Gianfranco would score from impossible locations. In 4 seasons at Napoli, he scored 32 goals in 105 games.In 1991 he won the SuperCoppa Italiana with Naopli and even made his debut with the Azzurri. Napoli then sold him because they needed money. Zola was sold to Parma for the 93-94 season.When he got to Parma, coach Nevio Scala used him and Colombian forward Faustino Asprilla in attack. In two seasons Zola becomes the best support striker in Italy. With Parma he reached the final of the Coppa delle Coppe, but lost to Arsenal, he won the Uefa Cup against Juventus, lost to Juventus in a Coppa Italia final, and even led Parma to 2nd place in the Campionato. He is brought to the World Cup in 1994 by Sacchi, but is red-carded against Nigeria after only a few minutes on the field.Trouble starts when Hristo Stoitchkov is brought to Parma and picking an attacking pair isn't as easy as before. Also, coach Scala leaves and Carlo Ancelotti is brought in, who favors new signings Hernan Crespo and Enrico Chiesa over Zola. He then realizes it is his time to leave. He is brought to Euro '96 by Sacchi but misses a crucial penalty against Germany in the group stage that would've sent Italy through. Instead they go home. In November 1996 (the current transfer window wasn't used yet),he is sold to Chelsea for $5 million. Zola plays two great seasons, winning an FA Cup, a Carling Cup, and a Coppe Delle Coppe. He even is a great fixture in the National Team, scoring a crucial goal at Wembley against England in a WC '98 qualifier on February 12, 1997. He was on the best Azzurri players during qualifying, but him along with Fabrizio Ravanelli and Ciro Ferrara, are cut from Cesare Maldini's WC '98 team. His record with the NT is 35 games and 8 goals. He is voted best Premier League player in 1997, and shows what a great champion he was. In 1989, Cagliari refused to buy Zola, saying he was too short and fragile. At the end of the 2003 season, Cagliari president Cellino lured Zola back to Sardegna to help the club he loved all of his life get back to Serie A. Ex-Chelsea President Ken Bates said this of Zola: "Zola was undoubtedly one of Chelsea’s greatest players ever. He’s been a joy to watch and a great influence both on and off the field, particularly because of his great interest with young fans. We owe him one hell of a lot of thanks. On behalf of every Chelsea fan I wish him and his family all the very best of good fortune in the future and I’m delighted that we hope to see him back at Stamford Bridge with the Cagliari team". One Chelsea fan said: "The man was,is and always will be a legend, the main man and a class act that I doubt anyone will follow for a long long time. He on his own has brought me so many brilliant memories, here are just a few. When he left Juilan Dicks on his Arse to score one of the best taken goals of yesteryear.Goal in the Cup Winners Cup Final. Goal against Norwich, pure class.CountlessFree kicks that only he could find the net from.Goal with his head against Vicenza, what a night. and many many many more which I would be here all day. Not to mention his outbreaks of skill every game. And his warmness towards us and is always usually last off the pitch applauding us. What a man and its a great shame to see him leave, not even a last chance to say goodbye. Love always Franco and hope you do the business back home. Regards to a gentleman and a truly fantastico bloke. Lets have two verses of Osgood, with the second one being Franco Franco." Zola refused lucrative offers from Qatar to play his hometown club. Few believed that Zola could help Cagliari get back to Serie A after a 4 year drought. He fromed a devastating trio with David Suazo and Mauro Esposito, making Cagliari the team that scored the most goals in Serie B that

Franko Baresi

Franco Baresi was born in Travagliato (Brescia), and arrived in Milan in the summer of 1974 when he was only 14 years old. From that moment on he wore the red-and-black shirt with pride and would earn one and a half million lire (his first wage packet was only twenty thousand lire- about seven dollars!). Playing for Milan he won, lost, suffered and triumphed in Italy and all over the world. His career was launched on the 23rd of April 1978, when he was selected for the first team in a game against Verona, which they went on to win 2-1. Once on the team, he impressed many and was never pulled out, and he soon became a pillar of strength. At the tender age of 22 Baresi, nicknamed 'Piscinin' (meaning 'small' in Milanese) by his team mates, became captain and earned the title of Golden Boy. What followed was his 'ticket to ride'. In twenty years he played in 716 official games for the first team: 470 in Serie A, 61 in B (Milan were in Serie B in 1980-81 for match-fixing), 97 in the Italian Cup, 50 in the Champion's League, 19 in the UEFA Cup, 6 in the European Supercup, 4 in the Intercontinental Cup, 3 in the Mitropa Cup, 5 in the Italian Supercup and 1 in the UEFA Playoffs. He won 6 Scudetti ('78-79, '87-88, '91-92, '92-93 '93-94, '95-96), 3 Champion's League Trophies('88-89, '89-90, '93-94), 2 Intercontinental Cups (89 and 90), 3 European SuperCups (89, 90, 94) and 4 Coppa Italia's (88, 92, 93, 94.) He scored 12 goals in Serie A over a 22 year career.He played for the Azzurri 81 times, 31 as captain, and scored only one goal, against Russia (in Bari, 20th February 1988) in a game which Italy won 4-1. He played for Italy in three World Cups, winning the ultimate prize in Spain in 1982, although he was very young and wasn't utilized much; in '94 they lost against Brazil in a penalty shoot-out, with him missing all the games after the group stage due to injury and making it just in time for the Final. He missed one of the penalties. His debut was on the 4th December 1982 (Italy-Romania 0-0) and his international farewell came in Maribor on the 7th September 1994 in a 1-1 draw against Slovenia. Alongside Beckenbauer and Scirea, he is considered as the greatest sweeper in the history of soccer. For many years his brother Giuseppe played for Inter and was therefore one of his greatest rivals. Franco, who has four brothers and sisters, is married and has two children called Edorado and Gianandrea. He retired after the 1996/1997 season and Berlusconi wanted to retire himself when he heard Baresi was hanging up his boots. Berlusconi left he Parliamentary quarters just to see his farewell match, which was an all-star match with Sacchi and Capello on each bench. Capello coaced the current Milan squad, while Sacchi coached the squad that won so much in the early 90's. The San Siro was packed and the best moment was Baresi scoring the 88th minute. He left the field with tears, as did the fans. His number 6 shirt is already a legend and it has been retired just like Michael Jordan's #23 shirt. He was the first Italian player in any Italian pro sport to have his jersey retired. He is now coach of Milan's Primavera squad and will probably be a coach in the future. He was a great player loved by everyone and won't be forgotten.

Roberto Baggio

I hope everyone will like it. I'll start off with the best Italian player of the modern era: Roberto Baggio aka Il Divino CodinoOn the 18th of February, 1967, this legend started in Caldogno, a small town in the north of Vicenza in Italy. In the Baggio family, which had had 5 children -- Gianna, Walter, Carla, Giorgio and Anne Maria; our soccer hero was born -- Roberto! As a person who loved soccer, he always thought of football, and didn't want to live without it. Roby's career began in the place where he had been there for 9 years. Just after a few matches, Roberto had become a little star, always scored. At the end of a game in which he had 6 goals, a scout Antonio Mora persuaded him to join Vicenza, a Serie C team at that time. However, under the coach Cad, Baggio didn't have much chance to play, and his first season just went pass. But a good news was that a new man arrived in the next season, Baggio therefore had more chances to play, he then gave his first career goal to Bruno Giorgi as a present, thanked the coach for putting him in a such important place. Furthermore, his good performance in this season brought him an under 16 national team place. The 84-85 season, Baggio was on track, he got 12 goals in 29 league games, this helped Vicenza to climb to Serie B. But on the 3rd of May, Roberto went pass Serie B, joined a Serie A team, Fiorentina. Baggio finished his first season in Fiorentina quietly. But in the next season, he finally took part in a Serie A game on the 21st of September, 1986, against Sampdoria. However, he hurt his knee in this season! Oh God! This is unfair, Baggio had just got a chance to show his talent, and now......wait a minute, he scored his first Serie A goal in the game vs Napoli on the 10th of May, 1987, not bad then! At least had a goal! Good things continued to come, in the next season, he totally recovered, and had 9 goals. On the other hand, he was called by national team for the first time in November, 1988, to play in Rome against Holland. Moreover, everyone will get married one day, and no exception for a soccer player, Roby stopped his long run with girl friend Andreina, formally became a couple after the end of this season. The following season, Baggio finished beautifully with 17 goals in 32 league matches. He also took the team to the final of UEFA Cup, but unfortunately they were beaten by a Torine team, Juventus, couldn't bring the cup back to Florence. The UEFA Cup winner Juventus, however, signed Baggio with a world record transfer fee -- US$17 million, it was about 7.5 million pounds. But this announcement made Fiorentina fans angry, caused riots in the streets. Anyway, Baggio's great form gave him a place in Azeglio Vicini's Italian national team in World Cup '90. However, as he was not brought up by Vicini from junior team, in Italy's 1-0 winning first and second match, there was no Baggio. But these poor results forced the coach to change. In the last match in the first round, Baggio and Schillaci partnered in front aimed at beating Czechoslovakia. They successfully combined together! And Roby scored the best goal in this tournament. After that, Italy went into the semi-final against Argentina. Before the match started, Vicini told Baggio that he was to be in the bench when the game began, the reason was he looked tired, but Roberto rebutted "I am 23! I will have eaten grass to play." No effect, he only played in the second half. 120 minutes over, the result was still leveled, penalty! Baggio luckily scored 1. But the game belonged to Argentine goalkeeper, who kicked Italy out......the host only got a third place. The sad memory of the World Cup forgotten, Baggio had a good start in Juventus, he scored 14 goals in 33 league games. On the 2nd of December, his wife brought a third person! Calm down, she just born their first child, Valentina. In the next season, Roberto played in 32 Serie A matches, got 18 goals. The 92-93 season was Baggio's best season in Juventus, he put the ball into the net 21 times in 27 league games. Baggio also led Juventus to play in the UEFA Cup, he took part in 9 games and scored 6 goals, and Juventus became the champion, this was Roberto's first major title that he had ever won. The following season, Baggio put his 100th Serie A goal in the net vs. Genoa. In December, he was recognized by the World, he won the double of Balon D'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year. Baggio scored 17 goals in 32 league matches this season. In May, 1994, shortly before the World Cup, his wife born their 2nd child, named Mattia. Roby then embarked on one of the best parts of his career.In World Cup '94, Roberto's ponytail and his excellent goals brought him a lot of supporters. He single-handedly led Italy to the final, saving them from embarresment in Overtime against Nigeria in the Round of 16 and bringing them to the semi's with a last minute goal against Spain. Against Stoichkov's suprising Bulgaria, Baggio scored twice to get Italy to the final. That he could play the final was good news, but Baggio hurt his thigh during the semi-final, and quite serious, the doctor told him not to play in the final. But he didn't want his fans disappointed, so he ignored his injury, went into the field again. However, his hurt thigh held him down, he couldn't find a way to score, but the most unfortunate was that during penalty shootout, Baggio missed the most important kick, therefore gave the cup to their opponent -- Brazil. Since then, the relationship between him and Sacchi has been worse. He was not called to the national team for the rest of Sacchi's reign.The injury from the World Cup made Baggio only played in 17 league matches and only got 8 goals. Although Juventus won both Serie A and Coppe Italia, the team moved towards Del Piero. And they said if Baggio accepted a decrease of 1/3 of the original salary, then he could stay. But of course Roby was not that foolish, he chose to leave, to either AC Milan or Inter Milan. Finally, on the 6th of July, he moved to the red and black AC Milan. However, this was a really bad decision, because he was only a substitute, and was not in the mind of coach Fabio Capello. He played 28 matches but only got 7 goals. As a result, Roby had contributed very little to the winning of the scudetto. At the beginning of the next season, Baggio got some hope, because Capello left the team, Taberez arrived. But when everyone thought that he might go up again, the poor performance of Milan cost him the place in the starting 11. Towards the end of the season, things went worse as Sacchi returned to Milan. Enemy met everyday, there was no chance for Baggio to stay. At last, in order to prove himself as a great player, he moved to a medium sized team -- Bologna, on the 18th of July, 1997. No more ponytail, Baggio proved his move to Bologna was totally right. He regained his form with helps from teammates, for example, Swedish Kennet Andersson, Russian Igor Kolyvanov, Italian Fontolan, and defender Paramatti, etc......Baggio finished this season with a career best 22 goals, just 5 fewer than German Bierhoff, and 3 fewer than Brazilian, his future Inter Milan teammate -- Ronaldo. Inter therefore once again invited Roby to join. And he decided to go back to San Siro Stadium after World Cup '98. The over-importance of Del Piero, and under-importance of Baggio by Cesare Maldini was one of the factors which caused the failure of the Italian team in World Cup France 98. The no.18 player did very good in France, with 2 goals. However in the third round, when the Italians met the host, although Baggio redeemed himself by scoring the first kick during the penalty shootout, Italy was once again eliminated on PK's. After a season of good performance in Bologna and World Cup '98, many people did expect Baggio to continue this in Inter, since he had Ronaldo as his partner. However, as everybody could see, Roby's first season playing for Inter was not so good. The beginning of the season was not so well, they had lost 4 Serie A matches before the wonderful return of Baggio, he scored twice when Real Madrid travelled to San Siro. Since then Inter's supporters thought they could have a smoother season, but injuries to Baggio, Ronaldo, Zamorano and Ventola totally broke down Inter's forward line, plus the poor defence at the back, ended up with a bad season without any trophy. They finished Serie A in 8th place, and were out of Italian Cup being beaten by Parma; while most importantly, they lost to Manchester United in the Champion's League, who later beat Juventus and Bayern Munich to win the Cup. The beginning of the 1999/2000 Season was full of expectation, with Vieri joining Inter, Baggio should be able to make a great combination with him. But unluckily the coach was the one who dumped Roby in Juventus -- Marcello Lippi. When he said that Baggio was in his Inter plan, everyone was satisfied, but soonly afterward they all realized that the coach's plan was to leave Roby outside the first team. With limited appearance, he didn't only lose a bit of form, but also a National Team place in EURO 2000, where the Italians lost the final match to the French. Overall, the season might have been disappointing, but Roby did a wonderful job in his last game for the Milan team, as he scored two brilliant goals in the Champions League play-off match against Parma. After that he was eventually out of contract with Inter on June 30th. After thinking for about four months, Baggio finally made a decision in September 2000 to join newly promoted club Brescia, mainly due to the fact that he could play much more than he could in bigger teams, and that it is close to his home in Vicenza. After two games against Juventus, it is obvious that going to Brescia was not a bad decision, and in fact he made history with a club that never stayed in Serie A for two consecutive seasons. During the first three years with Brescia, captain Baggio led the team to three consecutive salvations in Serie A, and personally he scored 33 goals in 70 league games. The main reason for his success in these seasons was the understanding and belief from coach Mazzone, so that he had the chance to get the most out of himself, and show off his strengths. Also, Baggio had a number of high-quality teammates, including Spanish star Guardiola, winger Bachini, midfield rising star Appiah, defenders Petruzzi, Calori, Bonera, Martinez, as well as stable keeper Sereni. They had been in great assistance to Baggio, who could take the advantage and concentrate on organizing attacks. The 2003/2004 season was Baggio's final year as a player, as he led Brescia to a historic 4th consecutive salvation. He scored his 200th Serie A goal in the match against Parma on 14th March 2004, after which he received a standing ovation from all the spectators at Parma's Tardini Stadium, a great honor to a great soccer player. Baggio played his final match on 16 May 2004, against an A.C. Milan led by his former teammate Paolo Maldini, when he left the field in the second half, all the players, coaches and staffs from both teams, as well as all the spectators at the San Siro Stadium gave him the biggest standing ovation to farewell one of the greatest soccer player in soccer history. Baggio will never be forgotten

Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima (pronounced [xo'nawdʊ lu'iz na'zaɾjʊ dʒi 'limɐ]) (born September 18, 1976), is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a striker for the Italian Serie A club AC Milan. He has been nicknamed "The Phenomenon" (Portuguese: O Fenômeno, Spanish: El Fenómeno). Pelé named him one of the 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004. In 2007 France Football named him in their best starting 11 of all time.
Ronaldo has enjoyed success at the international level, winning the 1994 and 2002 FIFA World Cups with Brazil. Ronaldo has won three FIFA World Player of the Year awards (1996, 1997, 2002). He and former Real Madrid teammate Zinedine Zidane are the only two men to have won the award three times.