Gabriel Batistuta (born 1 February, 1969 in Reconquista, Santa Fe Province of Argentina) is a world-famous footballer. He played most of his club football at Fiorentina, the team of Florence, Italy, before transferring to AS Roma. Currently, Batistuta plays for Al Arabi of Qatar. He is also the highest scorer of Argentina's National Team.

Contents

1 The Man 2 The Player 2.1 The beginning 2.2 Professional 2.3 International 2.4 Good-bye to Fiorentina 2.5 Summary 2.6 Goals 3 Links

The Man

Gabriel Omar Batistuta was born on 1 February, 1969 to slaughterhouse worker Omar Batistuta and school secretary Gloria Batistuta in the town of Avellaneda, Santa Fe Provice, Argentina, but grew up in the near city of Reconquista. After him, his parents Omar and Gloria Batistuta had three girls named Elisa, Alejandra and Gabriela.

At the age of 16 he met the love of his life on her 15th birthday (which is pompously celebrated in Argentina). It is said that Irina Fernandez completely ignored him at the beginning, but some 5 years later, on the 28th of December, 1990, Irina and Gabriel were married at the Saint Roque Church. The couple moved to Florence in 1991, and a year later their son Thiago was born.

Thanks to good performances in the Italian championship and with the Argentinean National Team, he gained fame and respect. He participated in several commercials, and was invited to numerous TV shows. In spite of this, Batistuta always reminded a low-profile family person. A hero in Florence, the city erected a life-size bronze statue with his figure in recognition of his 100 matches with Fiorentina.

In 1996, during Fiorentina's 2-1 victory at A.C. Milan, he celebrated scoring the match's decisive goal by saying Te amo, Irina ('I love you, Irina') to the cameras. The mix of sex appeal with faithful lover cemented Batistuta's reputation among Italian women.

In 1997 Batistuta's second son, Lucas, was born, and a third son, Joaquín, followed in 1999. In 2000 the Batistuta family moved to Rome and two years later to Milan, following Gabriel's changes of team. In 2002, after more than 10 years in Italy, the family moved to Qatar. A fourth son, Shamel, was born in 2003.

After his retirement Batistuta plans to go back to his home Argentina, and live in the country fields he bought with his father.

The Player

The beginning

As a child he fancied other sports. Thanks to his height he enjoyed basketball, but after Argentina's victory in the 1978 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 Platence he was selected for the Reconquista team with which he won the provincial championship against Newell's Old Boys from Rosario, also in Santa Fe Province. His 2 goals called their attention, and he signed for them in 1988.

Professional

He therefore joined the professional football club of Newell's Old Boys Club, whose coach was Marcelo Bielsa , who was later also his coach in the National Team.

Things didn't come easy for him during the first year. He was away from home, his family and his girlfriend Irina, sleeping in a room in the stadium, and had a weight problem that slowed him down. At the end of that year he was lent to the smaller team Deportivo Italiano, of Buenos Aires, with whom he participated in the Carnevale Cup in Italy, ending as top scorer with 3 goals.

At mid-1989 he made a jump to one of Argentina's biggest clubs, River Plate, where he scored 17 goals, but in mid-season coach Daniel Passarella (with whom he had later confrontation as they met in the national team) dropped him from the team.

In 1990 Batistuta signed for the other biggest Argentinean team, Boca Juniors, who he was already keen on. Having gone so long without playing he again found it hard to find his best form. At the begging of 1991 Oscar Tabárez became Boca's coach, and gave Batistuta support and confidence to become top scorer of that season, winning the local championship.

International

That year Batistuta was also selected to play for Argentina national football team in the Copa America held in Chile, where he was again both champion and top scorer with 6 goals.

It was during that competition that the vice-president of Fiorentina got the chance to see Gabriel's qualities, and signed him right away. Unhappily, Fiorentina were relegated at the end of that season to the Serie B (second division), in spite of Batistuta's 13 goals. After two years, with 16 goals of Batistuta's and under the coaching of Claudio Ranieri, Fiorentina returned to the Serie A

In 1993 Batistuta played his second Copa America, this time in Ecuador, which Argentina again won. The 1994 World Cup, held in the USA, was a disappointment: after a very promising start Argentina were beaten by Romania in the quarter-final stage, the morale of the team seriously affected by Diego Maradona's drug-abuse suspension.

On his return to Fiorentina Batistuta showed his best football, becoming 1994-1995 top scorer with 26 goals and breaking Ezio Pascutti 's 30 year old record by scoring in all of the first 11 matches of the season. In the 1995-1996 season Fiorentina won the Italian Cup and Super Coppa.

During the qualification matches for the 1998 World Cup, with Daniel Passarella now coaching the Argentinean team, Batistuta was left out for most of the games. Finally playing at the World Cup finals, he scored 5 goals in that competition, before Argentina lost 2-1 in the quarterfinals against the Netherlands.

After yet another failure to win a championship of importance, Batistuta started considering a transfer to a bigger team. But, partly in an effort to keep Batistuta, Fiorentina hired Giovanni Trapatoni as coach and promised to do everything to gain a Scudetto local championship. After an excellent start to the season, Batistuta suffered an injury that kept him off the field for more than a month. Losing momentum and their star striker, Fiorentina lost the lead and finished the season in the third position, which at least gave them the chance to participate in the Champions League.

Good-bye to Fiorentina

Again, Batistuta was held for the 1999-2000 season by the chance of winning both the Scudetto and the Champions League. But, not fulfilling his dream, he decided to move to A.S. Roma in a transfer worth 30 million US dollars.

In spite of a knee injury that kept him out for a few matches, he scored 20 goals for A.S. Roma and finally realized his dream: the Italian first division Scudetto. It was also the first championship won by A.S. Roma since 1983.

After an incredible performance by the Argentina team in the qualification matches for the 2002 World Cup, undefeated for almost 2 years, Batistuta planned to quit the National Team by the end of the tournament, and certainly hoped to do it holding the Trophy. But Argentina's "group of death" proved to be so, as with results 1-0, 0-1 and 1-1 against Nigeria, England and Sweden the team had to go home before the second round for the first time since 1962.

Back to Italy, he failed to find form with A.S. Roma and was then lend to Internazionale, where he had an unremarkable performance.

Batistuta, along with many other famous football stars in their late thirties, currently plays in Qatar for the Al-Arabi club.

Summary

• Physical data: Hight 1.85 mts, weight 73 Kg.(aprox).
• First profesional match: September 25, 1988. San Martín (Tucumán) 1 - Newell's Old Boys 0
• First profesional goal: May 16, 1989. Newell's Old Boys 3 - Platense 0.
• First National Team match: March 27, l991. Brazil 0 - Argentina 1.
• First National Team goal: July 8, 1991. Argentina 3 - Venezuela 0.
• Last? National Team match: June 2, 2002. Argentina 1 - Nigeria 0.
• Last? National Team goal: June 12, 2002. Argentina 1 - Sweden 1.
• 78 National Team matches with 56 goals.

• 1 Second Division (Serie B) Italian Championship (with Fiorentina) 1993-1994.
• 1 Italian Cup (with Fiorentina) 1995-1996
• 1 First Division (Serie A) Italian Championship (with A.S. Roma) 2000-2001.
• 1 First Division Top Scorer, 26 goals (with Fiorentina) 1994-1955
• 2 America Cup (Copa America) (with Argentina) 1991, 1993
• 1 America Cup Top Scorer, 6 goals (with Argentina) 1991

Goals

Batistuta and his goals in Clubs
Season	Team	Matches	Goals
1988-89	Newell's old boys	16	4
1989-90	River Plate	7	4
1989-90	Boca Juniors	10	2
1990-91	Boca Juniors	19	11
1991-92	Fiorentina	27	13
1992-93	Fiorentina	32	16
1993-94	Fiorentina	26	16
1994-95	Fiorentina	32	26
1995-96	Fiorentina	31	19
1996-97	Fiorentina	32	12
1997-98	Fiorentina	31	21
1998-99	Fiorentina	28	21
1999-00	Fiorentina	30	23
2000-01	Roma	28	20
2001-02	Roma	23	6
2002-03	Inter	24	6
2003-04	Al Arabi	18	25

Links

• Gabriel Batistuta in Boca Juniors http://www.bocampeonweb.com.ar/Historia/jugadores/batistuta.htm
• Current Biography International Yearbook 2002 - Biography: Batistuta Gabriel http://www.hwwilson.com/print/cbintl_batista_biography.htm
• Gabriel Batistuta - The history http://www.gabrielbatistuta.net/history/bati_history.html