Above the Rose Bowl, the Californian sun burned like fire. Flags trembled in the scorching wind. The emerald grass shimmered beneath the unforgiving light. Nearly one hundred thousand voices roared with such force it felt as though the sky itself might split apart.

He was not weeping. His head was not dramatically bowed. His body did not collapse. Yet around him unfolded one of football’s most poetic tragedies. At its centre stood Roberto Baggio.

The 57-year-old was watching defending champions Italy's 1-0 defeat by Spain in Germany on television on Thursday night when five armed individuals broke into his home near Vicenza in northeastern Italy.