channel4.com - Football Italia




Gabriel Batistuta Who can put a figure on how many trophies loyalty cost Gabriel Omar Batistuta? Had he moved away from Florence sooner than he did he could surely have added a few Scudetti, maybe a Champions League and quite possibly a handful of major Player of the Year prizes to his personal haul. That he stayed put for so long speaks volumes about the man. Yet it was a marriage that might not have happened. Fiorentina wanted an Argentine striker and could not decide between Batigol and his national teammate Diego Latorre. In the end, they signed them both and either one could have gone on to greater things. However, while the latter sunk without trace in Serie A, the man with the golden boot became one of the finest foreigners ever to play in Italy. “Fiorentina have scored. It's that man again, Gabriel Batistuta!” That statement became something of a catchphrase for Peter Brackley throughout the formative years of UK coverage of Italian football. The Argentine famously found the net in 11 consecutive games at the start of one Serie A season to set a new top-flight record, while at international level he became the top scorer in his country's history with 56 strikes. It was not just the volume of goals he scored, however, but the manner in which he scored them that marked him out. With his trademark mop of hair, he used to thunder past defenders, often brushing them out of the way before powering the ball into the net - sometimes threatening to carry the goalkeeper with it. His celebrations, too, were something special. For a while he would grab the corner flag and stand proudly beside it. Then he started firing an invisible machine gun each time he scored. He got through plenty of ammunition over the years. They famously erected a statue to him in Florence and he still comes to the Artemio Franchi on a regular basis where he gets a hero's welcome. However, it took a move to Roma to eventually get him the single Scudetto that was scant reward for the ability he possessed. He played briefly for Inter before concluding his career with Al-Arabi in Qatar, but his name will be forever linked with one club. To Fiorentina fans he will always be their 'Guerriero mai domo' - a warrior who never knew when he was beaten.

Words: Giancarlo Rinaldi

<150 Home>