Batigol: The Unbreakable Bond with La Viola
Florence is a city known for its cultural heritage with Michelangelo Buonarotti and Dante Aligheri being born in the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany. Millions of tourists visit the city eager to explore the famous monuments, and against the best football predictions, there is a statue of a football player among them. That is Gabriel Batistuta who left such a mark on the city that makes him a real legend.
The Argentinian spent 9 seasons wearing Fiorentina’s purple jersey, and every fan of the Violets sees him as a football god. Nicknamed “Batigol,” he is well remembered not only as one of the greatest scorers in football history but also as a player who proved what loyalty means when it comes to elite sport.
He started his football journey in the Platense junior team where he was a standout talent among his peers. Marcelo Bielsa, who would later become a legendary football figure himself, recognized Batistuta’s potential and brought him to Newell’s Old Boys. Bielsa will have a major impact on Batistuta’s career as he will later be in charge of the Argentina national team. Batistuta points out Bielsa as the most important coach he ever had, and as he says in his biography, “the one who taught me how to train on rainy days, he taught me everything”.
After only one season with the team from Rosario, Batistuta moved to River Plate in 1989. He and River’s coach Daniel Passarella did not click well, and Batistuta was on the move again. His transfer to the biggest rival Boca Juniors made a lot of noise in Argentinian football but it was the right move for Batigol as he finished as the league’s top scorer and won the 1991 Argentine Primera Division title.
Following the season, Batistuta was the key figure in the Argentina national team that won the Copa America, as he was the top scorer of the tournament with 6 goals. The spotlight of the European major clubs turned to Batistuta, and he joined Fiorentina shortly after.
At the time, Mario Cecchi Gori took over the team and brought in Batistuta, who quickly became the face of the club. He scored 13 goals in his first season in Florence, but things quickly took a wrong turn. Cecchi Gori passed away, and his son Vittorio was not as successful in the chairman position.
In 1993, Fiorentina was relegated to Serie B. Batistuta’s 16 goals that season were not enough as the team lost the final game on the schedule which saw them losing their spot in the highest level of competition in Italy. Everybody thought that Batistuta would leave the team as he was a top-level scorer, but he proved his loyalty to the team and stayed in Florence. The team had financial and managerial issues, but Batistuta was bigger than that and brought the team back to Serie A in the following season while scoring 16 goals as Fiorentina won the title in the second tier.
Once they were back in the elite, Batistuta took over the league and was the top-scorer in the 1994-95 season with 26 goals. He scored in the first 11 games of the season, setting a new Serie A record that was previously held by a nearby legend, Ezio Pascutti, who spent his entire career in Bologna.
The 1995-96 was Batistuta’s Fiorentina best season. The team had a 15-game streak without a single loss and finished the season in fourth place in Serie A. The highlight of the season and the biggest moment in the decade was the win in Coppa Italia, the team’s first trophy in 20 years. Batistuta scored in both legs of the final against Atalanta, but he didn’t stop there. A couple of months later, he scored both goals in a 2-1 Supercoppa Italiana win over the Serie A champion, Milan, at San Siro.
The team participated in the 1996–97 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, going all the way to the semifinals, but Bracelona was too big of a bite.
At the time, Batistuta was probably the best striker in the world. He could score in any given way, both inside or outside the penalty box and dominated in the air. Standing tall and strong, and being fat at the same time, Batigol was a real nightmare for every defender, whether he played for Fiorentina or Argentina.
Batistuta scored over 20 goals in each of the next three seasons, but Fiorentina was always one step behind the best teams in the league. He wanted to win the Scudetto and in 2000, he moved to AS Roma for a €36 million fee, the highest for a player over 30 years old at the time.
Roma won the Scudetto the very next season with Batistuta scoring 20 goals in 26 Serie A matches. He stayed in Italy’s capital for two more seasons, had a short stint on loan with Inter, and moved to Qatar, where he retired in 2005.
The career of Gabriel Batistuta saw him scoring wherever he played, but it is a fact that his most memorable days were in Fiorentina. There are not many players who left such a mark to a club as Batistuta did in Florence. He tops the all-time scoring list of the team from Florence with 151 Serie A goals and a total of 207 goals.
He would have a place in Fiorentina’s record books forever, but the club’s supporters remember him by much more than what the stats sheets show. Batistuta decided to stay with the team when they hit rock bottom with relegation in 1993, even though he could easily leave and play for any team from the top of Europe. Batistuta is the main reason for the change of scenario for the team from Florence. That relegation could have started a long and tough period for the team, but Batistuta’s class labeled that decade as the golden era of the club after winning the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana in 1996.
Batistuta was equally successful on the international scene as well. He represented his nation in three World Cups, scoring a total of 10 goals. Batistuta was on top of the scoring list for Argentina before Leo Messi showed up and scored 13 goals.
Batistuta left an undeniable mark wherever he played as he is a hero in Florence, a champion in Rome, and an icon in Argentina.