Legend Gabriel Omar Batistuta

Gabriel Omar Batistuta (born February 1, 1969), nicknamed Batigol, is a former professional footballer. The prolific Argentine striker played most of his club football at Fiorentina in Italy, and he is the eighth top scorer of all time in the Italian Serie A league, with 184 goals in 318 matches between 1991 and 2003. On the international level, he is the all-time highest scorer for Argentina's national team, with 56 goals in 78 national team matches, and he represented his country at three FIFA World Cups. In 2004, he was named in the FIFA 100 list of the "125 Greatest Living Footballers".

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 hero 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 AS Roma in 2000, he finally won the Serie A championship to crown his career in Italy. He played his last professional season in Qatar with Al-Arabi before he retired in 2005.

During the 2006 FIFA World Cup he worked as a commentator for Televisa Deportes.

Personal life

Batistuta was born on 1 February 1969, to slaughterhouse worker Omar Batistuta and school secretary Gloria Batistuta, 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. She is reported to have ignored him but five years later, 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 1996, during Fiorentina's 2-1 victory at Milan, he celebrated scoring the match's decisive goal by saying Te amo, Irina ('I love you, Irina', to his wife) for the cameras. The mix of sex appeal and faithfulness cemented Batistuta's heart-throb reputation among Argentine and Italian women. 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 2002, after more than 10 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.[1] His nickname is Batigol as he scores a lot of goals and his name starts with "Bati."

Honours

* First Division (Serie A) Italian Championship (with Roma) 2000-2001.
* Italian Supercup (with ACF Fiorentina) 1996, (with Roma) 2001
* Argentine Football Writers' Footballer of the Year 1998.
* Italian Cup (with Fiorentina) 1995-1996.
* Second Division (Serie B) Italian Championship (with Fiorentina) 1993-1994.
* First Division Top Scorer, 26 goals (with Fiorentina) 1994-1995
* Copa América (with Argentina) 1991, 1993
* Copa América Top Scorer, 6 goals (with Argentina) 1991
* Top Scorer of The Qatari League with a record breaking 24 goals.
* Top Scorer in all Arab leagues, awarded with a Golden Boot.
* Gabriel Batistuta also set a new Serie A record by scoring in 11 consecutive Serie A games
* Confederations Cup (with Argentina) 1992
* FIFA 100
* FIFA World Player of the Year 3rd Place 1999

Career statistics
Club performance League Cup League Cup Continental Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Argentina League Cup League Cup South America Total
1988-89 Newell's Old Boys Primera División 16 4
1989-90 River Plate Primera División 7 4
1989-90 Boca Juniors Primera División 10 2
1990-91 19 11
Italy League Coppa Italia League Cup Europe Total
1991-92 Fiorentina Serie A 27 13
1992-93 32 16
1993-94 Serie B 26 16
1994-95 Serie A 32 26
1995-96 31 19
1996-97 32 13
1997-98 31 21
1998-99 28 21
1999-00 30 23
2000-01 Roma Serie A 28 20
2001-02 23 6
2002-03 12 4
2002-03 Internazionale Serie A 12 2
Qatar League Emir of Qatar Cup League Cup Asia Total
2003-04 Al-Arabi 18 25
2004-05 3 0
Total Argentina 52 21
Italy 344 200
Qatar 21 25
Career Total 417 246