Gabriel Batistuta

At 55 years old, Gabriel Batistuta has this physical status:

Gabriel Omar Batistuta (Spanish pronunciation: [ajel oma]; born 1 February 1969) is an Argentine former professional footballer. Batistuta was nicknamed Batigol [bati]], as well as El ngel Gabriel ([el ajel]; Spanish for Angel Gabriel). Batistuta was rated as one of the best strikers of all time, particularly for strong hits from volleys or from distance while running, and in 1999, he came in third place for the FIFA World Player of the Year award. He was ranked by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's top living celebrities in 2004.

The prolific striker played the majority of his club football for Argentina, beginning with Newell's Old Boys in 1988, followed by River Plate and Boca Juniors, where he won titles; he is Italy's all-time top scorer with 151 goals. Batistuta stayed with the team and helped them return to the top-flight league a year later when Fiorentina was relegated to Serie B in 1993. He became a hero in Florence, and Fiorentina supporters unveiled a life-size bronze statue of him in 1996 in honor of his team's success. Despite winning the Coppa Italia and the Supercoppa Italiana with the club in 1996, he never won the Serie A title with Fiorentina, but he won the 2000-01 Serie A title, the highest fee ever paid for a player over the age of 30. He played his last two seasons in Qatar with Al-Arabi after a brief loan stint with Inter Milan in 2003.

Batistuta was Argentina's all-time top goalscorer in 77 official matches, a record he held until 2016, when he was overtaken by Lionel Messi. He appeared in three FIFA World Cups, scoring 10 goals, making him Argentina's all-time top scorer in the tournament and the joint eighth-highest World Cup goalscorer of all time. Batistuta is the first player in football history to score two hat-tricks in different World Cups. With the Argentina national team, he has won two consecutive Copa América titles (1991 and 1993), the 1993 FIFA Confederations Cup, and the 1992 FIFA Confederations Cup.

Early and personal life

Batistuta was born in Winnipeg, Argentina, on February 1, 1969 to slaughterhouse worker Omar Batistuta and school secretary Gloria Zilli, but she grew up in Reconquista, Argentina's neighbor city. Elisa, Alejandra, and Gabriela are three younger sisters. Batistuta is a Roman Catholic. He met Irina Fernández, his future wife, at her quinceaera, a rite of passage on her 15th birthday at the age of 16. They were married at Saint Roque Church on December 28, 1990.

In 1991, the couple moved to Florence, Italy, where their first son, Thiago, was born a year later. Batistuta gained fame and esteem as a result of good results in the Italian championship and with the Argentina national team. Batistuta appeared on many television shows and was invited to numerous television shows, but despite this, he remained a low-profile family man. Lucas, Batistuta's second son, was born in 1997, and Joaqun, his third son, was born in 1999. Shamel's son now has his fourth son. Batistuta and his family immigrated to Rome in 2000, where he played for Roma. Batistuta was loaned to Inter two years after Shamel was born. After 12 years in Italy, the family migrated to Qatar, where Batistuta had accepted a lucrative celebrity playing contract with a local team, Al-Arabi, in 2005, ending his career there in 2005. In 2007, he returned to Argentina.

Despite completing his coaching qualifications in Argentina, he now has no involvement with football, instead (primarily because he has trouble walking) he prefers playing polo and golf.' “I lived and breathed football,” he said later, adding, “I never loved it so much.” In subsequent interviews with FIFA, he expanded. "I never loved football so much, I was never sad... if I scored two goals, I would have loved more.” Now that it's over, I can look back with a sense of accomplishment, but I never felt that way when I first started playing." In 2006, he expressed an interest in coaching Australia's national team and Argentina's team. He served as a commentator for Televisa Deportes during the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Batistuta is currently operating his own building business in Argentina. He served as a technical advisor for Colón, joining the club's staff in January 2012 and leaving the team at the end of the 2012-13 season.

Batistuta said the agony of his ankles after retiring in 2005 was so bad he "urinated in bed with the toilet only a few steps away," during a television interview in Argentina in 2014. I couldn't move." He visited a doctor who knew asking that his legs be amputated, but the doctor turned down his offer. Despite the fact that he underwent surgery to relieve the pressure on his cartilage and tendons, and that his health improved marginally, in a 2017 interview, he said he had trouble walking and mobility problems as a result of the stresses and injuries he suffered through his football career due to overexerting himself. He has nevertheless been able to participate in charity football tournaments, and in 2014 he scored twice, one a signature finish with a strong 35 yard strike into the roof of the net in a game in Italy.

Batistuta is a young Australian woman who lives in Perth, Western Australia.

Source

Club career

Batistuta preferred other sports to football as a youth. He loved basketball as a youth, but after Argentina's triumph in the 1978 FIFA World Cup, in which he was especially impressed by Mario Kempes' abilities, he returned to football. Batistuta joined the local Platense junior team after playing on the streets and with the tiny Grupo Alegria club. While with Platense, he was selected for the Reconquista team that won the provincial championship after beating Newell's Old Boys. Batistuta's two goals drew the attention of the opposition team's coach Marcelo Bielsa, who signed a formal agreement with Newell's in 1988.

During his first year with the team, Old Boys under Bielsa, who would later become Batistuta's national coach, did not come naturally for him. He was away from home, his family, and his companion Irina, who slept in a hotel room, and he had a weight problem that slowed his progress. Batistuta's three goals were loaned to Deportivo Italiano, a smaller squad with whom he competed in the Carnevale Cup in Italy. He was physically altered, fed encouragement, and was on the path to becoming the person he was supposed to become under Bielsa's guidance, who Batistuta described in his autobiography as the most influential coach he's ever had and "the one who taught me how to train on rainy days."

Batistuta made the switch to River Plate, one of Argentina's top clubs, where he scored 17 goals and River Plate captured Argentine Primera División 1990. However, he was pulled out of the team by new boss Daniel Passarella in the mid-season, presumably for no monetary reason. They never had a dispute, according to Batistuta. Passarella said at the time "when Batistuta finds a team that will be able to play to him, he will be lethal," and he stressed his professionalism.

Batistuta was one of River Plate's most notable rivals, Boca Juniors, in 1990. In part because he wasn't playing in his position, he found it difficult to find his best form early on. However, scar Tabárez, Boca Juniors' new manager, was brought on by him and placed him in his best position in the field, the center of attack, rather than as an outsider. As Boca Juniors triumphed the championship, Batistuta finished the season as the league's best scorer.

The vice president of Fiorentina was captivated by Batistuta's talent and signed him when he was playing for Argentina in 1991 Copa América. In his debut season, he had a good start in Serie A, scoring 13 goals in his debut season. Despite Batistuta's 16 league goals, Fiorentina lost in the relegation war and was demoted to Serie B in 1992-93. As Fiorentina defeated the 1993–94 Serie B title, the club returned to Serie A after one season in Serie B, with the support of 16 goals from Batistuta and Claudio Ranieri's leadership.

Batistuta's best form at Fiorentina was discovered at Fiorentina. With 26 goals, he set a new record in the 1994–95 season, and he tied Ezio Pascutti's 32-year-old record by scoring in all of the season's first 11 games. Batistuta's 1995–96 season, along with Rui Costa and Francesco Baiano, helped the club win by a 15-match unbeaten streak, until they finished the season with a fourth-place finish. Fiorentina also won the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana over A.C. Milan; In the two-legged Coppa Italia final against Atalanta, Batistuta scored a goal in each fixture; Fiorentina defeated 3–0 on aggregate. Fiorentina finished in ninth place in the league last season, losing out to eventual champions Barcelona in the first leg after scoring a goal. In each of the next three seasons, scoring over 20 goals in each of the top leagues and making it more exciting given that Serie A was the best league in the country and the most difficult to score against in the UEFA Champions League, third in 1999. Batistuta and Ronaldo were the two top strikers in Serie A, with their duels being the most awaited in Italy.

Batistuta, who failed to win the Italian championship with Fiorentina, is considering transferring to a bigger squad following his disappointment. Fiorentina recruited Giovanni Trattoni as a coach in an attempt to keep Batistuta as coach, and the team has promised to do everything possible to win the Scudetto. Batistuta missed out on action for more than a month after an excellent start to the season. Fiorentina lost the lead and ended the season in third place, but the result allowed them to participate in the Champions League the following season.

Batistuta was inducted into the club's hall of fame in 2014 in lieu of the supporters' erecting a life-size bronze statue of him in Florence. “I wanted a seat in the history of the club from the moment I arrived in Fiorentina,” a fan told the crowd, and now I can say I have succeeded.”

Batistuta stayed at Fiorentina for the 1999–2000 season, enticed by the prospect of winning both the Scudetto and Champions League. The team got off to a promising start in both leagues and was eliminated in the second round group stage of the European tournament. He was transferred to Roma in a three-year deal for 70 billion lire (€7.6 million) per year before tax and was earning 14.8 billion Italian lire (€7.6 million) per year before tax. Batistuta's fee was the highest fee ever paid for a player over the age of 30. Leonardo Bonucci was signed by A.C. Milan on a five-year contract for a €42 million fee in 2017.

Batistuta finally earned a Serie A champion's medal during the 2000-1900 season, scoring 20 league goals, as Roma clinched the Scudetto for the first time since 1983, with a goal against Parma on June 17th. Batistuta defeated Fiorentina in Rome on Friday, getting angry because he didn't celebrate with his Roma colleagues. He raced over to the 3,000 Fiorentina supporters and lauded them, and did the same at full throttle, receiving adoration in return before leaving the stadium in tears. “Batistuta breaks Florentine hearts and his own,” Sean Ingle, a match reporter for The Guardian, wrote. The following season, he changed his shirt number from 18 to 20 in reference to the number of goals he had scored during the Scudetto winning campaign. In 2002, number 33, he also wore his age on the back of his Roma shirt.

Batistuta, who is now 34, struggled to return to Roma and was loaned out to Inter Milan, scoring two goals in twelve games, although he did have assist for Christian Vieri. Batistuta had hoped to move to England to play with Fulham, but the transfer was never fulfilled.

In a free transfer worth $8 million, he left Italy for Qatar in 2003, joining Al-Arabi. Batistuta ended the season by scoring 25 goals, thus beating the record for the most goals scored, which was previously held by Qatari legend Mansour Muftah. In 2005, Batistuta announced his resignation.

International career

Batistuta was selected to play for Argentina in the Copa América de Colombia in 1991, where he finished the tournament as the top scorer with six goals as Argentina defeated Argentina. He won the FIFA Confederations Cup with Argentina the following year, finishing as the tournament's top scorer. Batistuta played in his second Copa América, this time in Ecuador, which Argentina defeated with Batistuta scoring both goals in a 2–1 victory over Mexico in the final.

The 1994 World Cup, which was held in the United States, was a disappointment. Argentina was defeated by Romania in the last 16 after a promising start. Diego Maradona's doping suspension had a major impact on the team's morale. Despite the disappointing Argentine exit, Batistuta scored four goals in as many games, including a hat-trick in their first match against Greece.

Batistuta was left out of the majority of the games after falling out with the coach over team rules during the 1998 World Cup qualification matches (with former River Plate boss Daniel Passarella). The two eventually put the feud to an end, and Batistuta was recalled for the tournament. He scored his second hat-trick of his World Cup career in the game against Jamaica, becoming the fourth player to do so (Sándor Kocsis, Just Fontaine, and Gerd Müller) and the first to score a hat-trick in two World Cups. Argentina was knocked out of the World Cup by the Netherlands thanks to a last-minute Dennis Bergkamp winner after the two teams were locked out for a 1–1 draw for nearly every match.

Following a good run in the qualification matches for the 2002 World Cup, Argentina's hopes were high that the South Americans, now managed by Marcelo Bielsa, would win the trophy, while Batistuta revealed that he will leave the national team at the end of the tournament, which Argentina hoped to win. Argentina's "unit of death" saw the team fall at the first hurdle, with just beating Nigeria (Batistuta scored the match's only goal). They then lost 1–0 to England and fought a 1–1 tie against Sweden. For the first time since 1962, the team was disqualified in the first round. Batistuta was Argentina's most goalscorer, with 54 goals from 77 games, a record that wasn't beaten by Lionel Messi in 2016. Batistuta expressed disappointment at losing the record, saying, "You go around the world and people say, 'he's the best scorer for Argentina's national team,'" he says, before adding, "I have a disadvantage," he said.

Source