Baggio chops `divine ponytail’

BOLOGNA, Aug 17: The most famous ponytail in world soccer has been given the chop. Roberto Baggio turned up for training with his hair cropped short, his trademark style a thing of the past.The ponytail, which made its debut seven years ago and reached the height of its fame during the 1994 World Cup, lies quietly in a drawer in Baggio’s house in Caldogno.“I was tired of having long hair,” he told astonished reporters after training with his new club Bologna. “My family agreed and my wife Andreina gave it the final snip.”Italy’s newspapers were stunned. “Roberto Baggio brings an era to a close,” proclaimed Gazzetta Dello Sport in a front page headline today. “We are talking about a new epoch,” said La Republica. "The ponytail became a part of literature,” the paper gushed. He vowed to remain crop-headed for the rest of his career. “It’d take too long to grow back,” he said. “From now on you’ll just have to call me `the marine’.