Worldscene: José Mourinho, Otto Rehhagel, Roberto Baggio, Roger Lemerre, Iraq, Theo Zagorakis, Bosnia, Serbia, Tunisia and Palestine - what have they in common? Not a lot really, other than that they represent "success" stories of varying degrees that have featured in this column over the past 12 months.

This is, of course, the time of year when a moment's pause for thought and reflection imposes itself. All the more so for those of us who live in civilised parts where the "FootBiz Industry" closes down for a much needed two-week break. (Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out to play on the St Stephen's Day ice).

In football, there is success and success. No one could argue with the sort of success achieved by Mourinho, first in lifting the Champions League with Porto and more recently in making an excellent start with Chelsea, both in the Premiership and the Champions League. Likewise, it is hard to argue against the totally unexpected, but deserved triumph of Greece at Euro 2004 in Portugal, a triumph to which coach Otto Rehhagel and captain Theo Zagorakis probably made the most telling contributions.

That sort of success is easily identified and quantified. For me, less obvious success stories concern Palestine, Iraq, Bosnia, Serbia and Tunisia. For Bosnia and Serbia, their success was that the two countries managed to play an October World Cup qualifier in Sarajevo's Kosovo Stadium without violence or fan riots.

Given the suffering, pain and bloodshed of the Serb-led siege of Sarajevo 10 years ago, the game had been given an understandable "high risk" rating. Yet for once, maybe football did prove itself a "powerful tool to release tension and generate dialogue" (The Power of Football For Peace by FIFA). Maybe this time, "cultural differences and political agendas" did indeed "dissolve on the playing field".

For Iraq, there were miracles aplenty. Given the war raging back at home, it was remarkable that an Iraqi side made it to the Athens Olympics football finals at all. That the team then went on to fight out the third place final with mighty Italy was little short of miraculous. Mind you, the miracles stopped there, since Italy won the bronze medal.

For Palestine, as indeed for Iraq, just managing to turn up for a game was a success. That, then, was what they both did in Qatar in November for a World Cup qualifier that might well have been organised by the FIFA Football For Peace scriptwriters. Sad to say, both sides have since been eliminated from their Asian qualifying section.

For Tunisia and their French coach Roger Lemerre, there was success of a more tangible sort. Amid all the wild scenes of celebration that greeted Tunisia's African Cup of Nations success last February, (beating Morocco 2-1 in the final), Lemerre played it cool.

You could hardly blame the 62-year-old. After all, in the previous four years, he had been on a fast-track ride from national hero to national scapegoat and back again. As coach to France, he had travelled from the high of Euro 2000 success to the low of a 2002 World Cup debacle.

Little wonder that, in the midst of the celebrations, he was guarded about both his own immediate future and that of Tunisia. His caution was probably well placed since Tunisia have picked up just one win (Botswana), two draws (Malawi and Morocco) and one defeat (Guinea) in four subsequent Germany 2006 World Cup qualifiers.

For Tunisia and Lemerre, as indeed for Zagorakis, Mourinho and Rehhagel, there will be other days of triumph and disaster ahead. For 37-year-old Roberto Baggio the end of the road - at least as a player - came last May.

Picking the right moment to finally retire is never easy but, after 22 seasons of professional football, even Baggio had to bow to the inevitable. Curiously, notwithstanding its longevity, Baggio's remarkable career seems strangely incomplete.

He did, of course, win league titles with Juventus (1995) and AC Milan (1996), yet he never featured in a Champions League winning side. Likewise, despite scoring 27 goals in 55 games for Italy, his international career will probably be best remembered for that final penalty kick miss in the shootout which saw Italy lose the 1994 World Cup final to Brazil.

For all that, though, Baggio has earned his place in football's hall of fame. His crystalline class and footballing intelligence as well as his durability (notwithstanding distinctly dodgy knees) meant that he truly was a Little Prince of a footballer. I, for one, will miss him in 2005.