Gabriel Omar Batistuta, nicknamed Batigol as well as El Ángel Gabriel, is a retired
professional footballer. The prolific Argentine striker played most of his club football at
Fiorentina in Italy, and is the eleventh top scorer of all-time in the Italian Serie A
league, with 184 goals in 318 matches. At international level, he is Argentina's
all-time leading goalscorer, with 56 goals in 78 matches, and he played at three World
Cups. In 1999, Batistuta was third in the FIFA World Player of the Year awards. In 2004
he was named in the FIFA 100 list of the Top 125 greatest living footballers. With an all-round
game with clinical finishing, heading and free-kick taking abilities, he is known as
one of the most complete strikers of his generation. Diego Maradona stated that Batistuta is the
best striker he has ever seen play the game. When his club Fiorentina was relegated to
Serie B in 1993, Batistuta stayed with the club and helped it return to the top-flight
league a year later. A popular sporting figure in Florence, the Fiorentina fans erected a
life-size bronze statue of him in 1996, in recognition of his performances for Fiorentina.
He never won the Italian league with Fiorentina, but when he moved to Roma in 2000, he finally
won the Serie A title to crown his career in Italy. He played his last season in Qatar
with Al-Arabi before he retired in 2005.
Biography Gabriel Batistuta was born on 1 February 1969,
to slaughterhouse worker Omar Batistuta and school secretary Gloria Zilli, in the town
of Avellaneda, province of Santa Fe, Argentina, but grew up in the near city of Reconquista.
He has three younger sisters, named Elisa, Alejandra, and Gabriela.
At the age of 16, he met Irina Fernández, his future wife, at her quinceañera, a rite
of passage on her 15th birthday. On 28 December 1990, they were married at Saint Roque Church.
The couple moved to Florence, Italy, in 1991, and a year later their first son, Thiago,
was born. Thanks to good performances in the Italian championship and with the Argentine
national team, Batistuta gained fame and respect. He filmed several commercials and was invited
onto numerous TV shows, but in spite of this, Batistuta always remained a low-profile family
man. In 1997, Batistuta's second son, Lucas, was
born, and a third son, Joaquín, followed in 1999. He now has a fourth son Shamel. In
2000, Batistuta and his family moved to Rome, where he played for Roma. Two years after
Shamel was born, Batistuta was loaned to Inter. In 2003, after 12 years in Italy, the family
moved to Qatar where Batistuta had accepted a lucrative celebrity playing contract with
a local team, Al-Arabi. Batistuta ended his career at Al-Arabi, retiring
in March 2005, after a series of injuries that prevented him from playing. Soon afterwards
he moved to Perth, Australia. In April 2006, the city's established A-league franchise,
Perth Glory was put up for sale however Batistuta was not interested in the purchase seeing
no real potential in the club. Club career
Early career As a child, Batistuta preferred other sports
to football. Because of his height he played basketball, but after Argentina's victory
in the 1978 FIFA World Cup, in which he was particularly impressed by the skills of Mario
Kempes, he devoted himself to football. After playing with friends on the streets and in
the small Grupo Alegria club, he joined the local Platense junior team. While with Platense
he was selected for the Reconquista team that won the provincial championship by beating
Newell's Old Boys from Rosario. His 2 goals drew the attention of the opposition team,
and he signed for them in 1988. Newell's Old Boys
Batistuta signed professional forms with Newell's Old Boys, whose coach was Marcelo Bielsa,
who would later become Batistuta's coach with the Argentine national team. Things did not
come easily for Batistuta during his first year with the club. He was away from home,
his family, and his girlfriend Irina, sleeping in a room at the stadium, and had a weight
problem that slowed him down. At the end of that year he was loaned to a smaller team,
Deportivo Italiano, of Buenos Aires, with whom he participated in the Carnevale Cup
in Italy, ending as top scorer with 3 goals. River Plate
In mid-1989, Batistuta made the leap to one of Argentina's biggest clubs, River Plate,
where he scored 17 goals. He was drew out of the team by the new coach Daniel Passarella
in the mid season, apparently with no specific reason, according to Gabriel they never had
a dispute. Passarella declared at that time "when Batistuta finds a team that be able
to play to him he will be mortal" and highlighted his professionalism.
Boca Juniors In 1990, Batistuta signed for River's arch-rivals,
Boca Juniors. He initially found it hard to find his best form, in part not playing in
his position. However, at the beginning of 1991 Oscar Tabárez became Boca's coach, and
he gave Batistuta the support and put him into his best place in the field, the centre
of attack. Then Gabriel became the league's top scorer that season as Boca won the championship.
Fiorentina While playing for Argentina in the 1991 Copa
América, the vice-president of Fiorentina was impressed by Batistuta's skills and signed
him for the Italian club. He had a fine start in Serie A, scoring 13 goals in his debut
season. However, the following season Fiorentina lost in the relegation battle and were demoted
to Serie B, despite Batistuta's 16 league goals. The club returned to Serie A after
one season in Serie B, with the contribution of 16 goals from Batistuta and the management
of Claudio Ranieri. At Fiorentina, Batistuta found his best form.
He was the top scorer of the 1994–95 season with 26 goals, and he broke Ezio Pascutti's
30-year-old record by scoring in all of the first 11 matches of the season. In the 1995–96
season Fiorentina won the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa. In the two-legged cup final against
Atalanta, Batistuta scored a goal in each fixture as Fiorentina won 3-0 on aggregate.
After his failure to win the Italian championship with Fiorentina, Batistuta started considering
a transfer to a bigger team. In an effort to keep Batistuta, Fiorentina hired Giovanni
Trapattoni as coach and promised to do everything to win the Scudetto. After an excellent start
to the season, Batistuta suffered an injury that kept him out of action for more than
a month. Losing momentum, Fiorentina lost the lead and finished the season in third
place, which gave them the chance to participate in the Champions League in the following season.
Scudetto with Roma Batistuta stayed at Fiorentina for the 1999–2000
season, tempted by the chance of winning both the Scudetto and the Champions League. After
a promising start in both competitions, the team only reached seventh in the league and
were eliminated in the second round group phase of the European tournament. The following
season, he was transferred to Roma in a deal worth 70 billion Italian lire and signed a
3-year contract, which earned 14.8 billion Italian lire per year before tax. The fee
paid for Batistuta remains the highest fee ever paid for a player over the age of 30.
He finally garnered a Serie A winners' medal as Roma clinched the Scudetto for the first
time since 1983. The following season with Roma, he changed his shirt number from 18
to 20 in reference to the number of goals he had scored during the Scudetto winning
campaign. He also wore his age on the back of his Roma jersey in 2002, number 33.
Inter and Qatar Batistuta failed to find form with Roma and
was loaned out to Internazionale, scoring 2 goals in 12 matches. He sought a move to
England, to play with Fulham F.C. but the deal never transpired. Instead he departed
Italy for Qatari team Al-Arabi on a free transfer, in a deal worth $8 million. In Qatar, he broke
the record for most goals scored that was held by Qatari legend Mansour Mouftah by scoring
24 goals. International career
In 1991, Batistuta was selected to play for Argentina in the Copa América held in Chile,
where he finished the tournament as top scorer with six goals as Argentina romped to victory.
In 1993, Batistuta played in his second Copa América, this time held in Ecuador, which
Argentina won with Batistuta scoring both goals in a 2–1 win over Mexico in the final.
The 1994 World Cup, held in the United States, was a disappointment. After a promising start
Argentina were beaten by Romania in the last 16. The morale of the team was seriously affected
by Diego Maradona's doping suspension. Despite the disappointing Argentine exit, Batistuta
scored four goals in as many games, including a hat-trick in their opening game against
Greece. During the qualification matches for the 1998
World Cup Batistuta was left out of the majority of the games after falling out with the coach
over team rules. The two eventually put the dispute aside and Batistuta was recalled for
the tournament. In the game against Jamaica, he recorded the second hat-trick of his World
Cup career, becoming the fourth player to achieve this and the first to score a hat-trick
in two World Cups. Argentina were knocked out of the World Cup by the Netherlands courtesy
of a last minute Dennis Bergkamp winner after the two sides had held out for a 1–1 draw
for almost the entire match. After a good series of performances by Argentina
in the qualification matches for the 2002 World Cup, hopes were high that the South
Americans – now managed by Marcelo Bielsa – could win the trophy, and Batistuta announced
that he planned to quit the national team at the end of the tournament, which Argentina
aimed to win. But Argentina's "group of death" saw the team fall at the first hurdle, only
managing a victory against Nigeria. They later fell to England 1–0 and managed a mere 1–1
tie against Sweden. This meant that the team was knocked out in the opening round for the
first time since 1962. International goals
Note: The list does not include friendly matches. Personal life
Batistuta is of italian ancestry. Batistuta retired in 2005 and moved to Perth, Australia,
but moved back to Argentina in 2007. Despite having completed his coaching badges in Argentina,
he currently has no involvement with football, instead he prefers to play polo and golf,
he was quoted saying 'I don't like football, it's only my job'. He expressed an interest
in coaching Australia's national team and Argentina's team. During the 2006 FIFA World
Cup he worked as a commentator for Televisa Deportes. Batistuta currently runs his own
construction company in Argentina. He also worked as technical secretary in the professional
football club Colón, joining the club's staff in January 2012, and leaving at the end of
the 2012–2013 season. Career statistics
Club Honours
Club River Plate
Argentine Primera División: 1989–90 Boca Juniors
Torneo Clausura: 1991 Fiorentina
Serie B: 1993–94 Coppa Italia: 1995–96
Supercoppa Italiana: 1996 Roma
Serie A: 2000–01 Supercoppa Italiana: 2001
National team Argentina
Copa América: 1991, 1993 FIFA Confederations Cup: 1992
Artemio Franchi Trophy: 1993 Individual
Copa América Top Scorer: 1991, 1995 FIFA Confederations Cup Top Scorer :1992
World Cup Bronze Boot: 1994 Serie A Top Scorer: 1995
Coppa Italia Top Scorer: 1995–96 World Cup Silver Boot: 1998
Argentine Player of the Year: 1998 Serie A Foreign Footballer of the Year: 1999
FIFA World Player of the Year: 1999 Qatari League Topscorer: 2004
Qatari League Golden Boot: 2004 Fiorentina all-time Top Scorer
Argentina all-time Top Scorer FIFA 100
Italian Football Hall of Fame: 2013 References
External links Gabriel Batistuta – official website
International statistics at rsssf Gabriel Batistuta at National-Football-Teams.com
Midfield Dynamo's 10 Heroes of the Copa América Batistuta listed in the top 10
Gabriel Batistuta – Photo profile Futbol Factory profile at the Wayback Machine