Derby County almost sealed AC Milan transfer - Rams could've landed an all-time Pride Park great | OneFootball

In 1997, Roberto Baggio needed a new club, and he nearly ended up at Derby County. He would surely have ended up a Rams legend had he gone there.

In 1997, Derby County nearly completed what would have been the most audacious transfer of the year when they tried to tempt the legendary Roberto Baggio to Pride Park.

When Derby County were promoted into the Premier League in 1996, it was clear that the club had big ambitions, with the imminent completion of their new Pride Park stadium.

The Rams finished their first season back in the top flight in six years in 12th place, and that summer were on the lookout for new players to further strengthen their squad.

The Divine Ponytail wasn't looking for a 'retirement league' in 1997

Just three years earlier, Baggio had missed the decisive penalty in the shootout at the end of the World Cup final between Brazil and Italy, but his career was nowhere near over by the time that Derby showed their interest in him.

Over five years with Juventus and two with Milan, he'd won the Serie A title twice, the Coppa Italia, and the UEFA Cup, but by the summer of 1997 he was still only 30 years old and, having been told by Milan that he was to be released, needed a new club to be considered for the 1998 World Cup finals. This wasn't a player looking for one final payday before retirement. If anything, he was a player with a big point to prove.

Figures from FBRef.

The Derby manager, Jim Smith, was confident that such a move could be completed, saying that, "Landing Roberto Baggio would lead to an explosion of interest - and we now have a 50-50 chance of swinging the deal", and that, "The main question still is whether Roberto genuinely wants to sample the English experience."

The decision not to pursue the Baggio deal was Derby's

But when the decision was made to pull back from the deal, it came from Derby County who did so rather than Baggio himself, with Smith reportedly baulking at the escalating cost of it. Baggio was reportedly going to cost them £30,000 a week, and a time when Alan Shearer was the highest paid player in the Premier League on £34,000 a week.

In the end, Baggio stayed in Italy instead, scoring 22 goals in 30 Serie A games for Bologna during the 1997/98 season. He also did end up going to the 1998 World Cup finals with Italy, although they were knocked out in the quarter-finals by the hosts, France.

But Baggio did still create headlines that summer. Earlier in the tournament, he had converted his first penalty kick since that 1994 miss in a group match against Chile. He also converted one in the shootout that Italy lost to France following a goalless draw in Paris. He also signed for Internazionale that summer and would then move to Brescia in 2000, scoring a further 45 goals for them in Serie A appearances before retiring in 2004.

And while Derby County may have been disappointed at their ultimate failure to bring such a global football icon to Pride Park, they didn't suffer too much in his absence.

They finished 9th in the Premier League in 1998 and 8th the following season, remaining a Premier League club until relegation 2004.

But Derby didn't get the European qualification that they were hoping for after moving into their new ground. Perhaps, had they not got cold feet about the amount that he would have cost them, things might have ended up looking very different indeed for the club.