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'.

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