Subject of Biography: Batistuta, Gabriel

Pronunciation: (gab-ree-EL bah-tee-STOO-ta)

Biography from Current Biography International Yearbook (2002)Copyright (c) by The H. W. Wilson Company. All rights reserved.

"Batistuta is a forward so explosive, so threatening and thrilling with his potent mixture of brain and brawn," sportswriter Paul Forsyth for Scotland on Sunday (November 21, 1999) once said of the legendary Argentinean soccer player Gabriel Batistuta, "that he will go down as one of the greatest goalscorers never to have played for a behemoth of the European game." Indeed, throughout his nearly 15-year career, Batistuta has become Argentina's all-time top scorer, making 56 goals in 78 appearances for the nation's international team; his World Cup performances for Argentina--in 1994, 1998, and 2002--have resulted in 10 World Cup goals, placing him sixth in the record-books. (Gerd Mueller of Germany set the record for World Cup goals in 1974, scoring a total 14 goals in his two World Cup appearances.) At six-feet, one-inch, the right-footed striker has been nicknamed "Bati-Gol" for his incredible goal-scoring feats. Though he retired from international soccer after the 2002 World Cup, Batistuta continues to play for the A.S. Roma club in the Italian league, where he has spent the majority of his career. He played center forward for Florence's Fiorentina Football Club from 1991-2000--during which time he scored over 150 goals for the team, making him the undisputed top scorer in Italian soccer--and joined A.S. Roma in 2000. In June 2001 he helped bring A.S. Roma its first Series A Italian League title in 18 years. Although Batistuta's Italian teams have failed to clinch Europe's top soccer championships, he insists the league is competitive--and fully rewarding. As he once told Paul Smith for the Sunday Mirror (July 16, 2000), "People go on about the Premiership [Britain's soccer league], but they are still way behind the Italians. Most of the European players heading for England are at the end of their careers and have already played at the top level abroad. The younger talent will inevitably end up in Italy because, apart from Spain, no other country can compete with them. . . . Italian football is still technically better and far more professional." (In most South American and European countries, soccer is known as football.)

The eldest of four children, and only son, of Osmar Batistuta, a slaughterhouse worker and chicken farmer, and Gloria Batistuta, a school secretary, Gabriel Batistuta was born on February 1, 1969 in the small city of Avellaneda, in Argentina's Santa Fe region, north of Buenos Aires. (He grew up in the nearby town of Reconquista.) Though poor, Batistuta was raised as a devout Catholic and was taught from an early age the importance of helping his family and focusing on education. As his mother once recalled to Nicholas Rigillo for the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (July 2, 1998), "He was very sweet and soon learnt to make himself useful. He is the only male, but he has always had to follow the same rules as his sisters: first, look after your room; secondly, take turns in washing the dishes; third, help your father with his small chicken farm." By the age of 12, Batistuta was driving a small truck around town--even though he had no license--to deliver eggs from his father's chickens. He was known to study diligently, and dreamed of becoming a doctor or an engineer. (Yet, his mother told Rigillo, "He wasn't particularly good at school. He didn't like obeying the teachers.") Batistuta also had a love for sports. Because of his height, he played both volleyball and basketball, which remained his favorite sport until 1978, when he discovered Argentina's beloved national game: soccer. That year Argentina achieved a historic World Cup victory on home soil. "I was bewitched by [Mario] Kempes," Batistuta told Rigillo, "a real champion." Although Reconquista then had no soccer fields on which children could play, Batistuta and his friends took to the streets. "I played on the streets, without any shoes," he explained to Rigillo, "so I always got calluses on my feet. The teams used to be fielded on the side of the main road, using trees as posts. The ball kept flying over cars, what challenges!"

At age 15 Batistuta joined a youth soccer team in Platense, where his teammates soon nicknamed him "El Gordo"--"Chubby"--because of his weight. In 1988 he moved to Rosario to join a professional soccer club, the Newell's Old Boys Club, where he was later nicknamed "Camion," or "truck," for his power and speed. He made his on-field debut with Newell's Old Boys in a match against San Martin on September 15, 1988. In that game Batistuta played for just 30 of the regulation 90 minutes, and his team lost, 1-0. However, many fans consider his true debut to be at a game three days later when he was sent in to replace Newell's injured striker in the semifinal match for the South American club championship, the "Copa Libertadores." Though he did not score any goals in that game, many sportswriters took note of his talent, with one headline the next morning reading, "Batistuta, a star in the making," according to a short biography posted on Batistuta's official Web site (www.gabrielbatistuta.net).

Despite his professional success in Rosario, Batistuta found his first year quite challenging. "They weren't easy times," he told Rigillo, recalling how he slept in a small room inside the stadium. "I missed my family a lot and didn't have much money. More than once I thought about going back home." However, he stayed with the team for one season and moved to Buenos Aires in 1989 to play for River Plate, a national team then coached by Reinaldo Merlo. Determined to prove his worth, Batistuta scored four goals in 17 matches for the team. But in the middle of that season, Daniel Passarella, a former player who had been the captain of Argentina's 1978 World Cup-winning team, took over coaching River Plate and refused to play Batistuta for the rest of the season. In a move that has always surprised Batistuta's fans, Passarella dismissed the young soccer player, recalling to Steve Rogers for the London Mirror (June 30, 1998), "Batistuta? He had square feet and a technique to match." Though River Plate won that season's Copa Libertadores, Batistuta left the team in June 1990 for another Argentine soccer club, the Boca Juniors.

In Batistuta's early days with the Boca Juniors he again had to prove his talent to a new team and a new coach. In addition, his skills were rusty after several months without regular playing time. When Oscar Tabarez became the team's new coach in January 1991, however, he began to reconstruct the team and emphasized the best qualities of each player. With improved confidence, Batistuta quickly earned a reputation as an aggressive striker, hungry for goals. That season he played in more than 30 games, scoring 13 goals and ultimately helping his team win the 1991 Argentine League championship. (He was the league's top scorer for the season.) Such success earned the team a place at the 1991 Copa Libertadores championships, though the Boca Juniors lost to a Chilean team in the semi-finals. That year Batistuta was also selected to play for Argentina's national team in the Copa America, an international soccer competition held every two years. In part because of Batistuta's aggressive footwork--he was the competition's top scorer with six goals--Argentina won the 1991 Copa America, which was hosted by Chile.

Soon after the 1991 Copa America Batistuta made a significant move, leaving Argentina altogether for the Fiorentina Football Club in Florence, Italy, in a deal arranged by the sports agent Settimo Aloisio. Batistuta joined Fiorentina together with another Argentinean forward, Diego Lattore. Of the two players, Lattore was widely thought to have the greatest potential; Batistuta was forced to once again prove his worth. (Despite high expectations, Lattore never made his mark in Florence and was later loaned to Swiss clubs, back to Argentina, and also to Spain.) Recalling his first months in Italy, Batistuta told Rob Hughes for the International Herald Tribune (October 2, 1997), "The boys on the Fiesole [Fiorentina's circle of obsessive soccer fans] were the only ones who believed in me during my first, difficult six months." However, it did not take long for Batistuta to demonstrate his penchant for making goals. He scored his first for Fiorentine on February 26, 1992, making the only shot against Juventus and securing a 1-0 Fiorentina win. Throughout the remainder of that season, he scored an astonishing 13 goals in 27 games. In spite of Batistuta's personal achievements, Fiorentina finished twelfth in the first-division Series A league and was destined to spend the next two seasons in Series B. (Series B is the second division in Italian football; Series A is reserved for Italy's best 18 teams.)

Although Batistuta was disappointed to be playing for a second-division team, his contract and his sense of loyalty to his fans kept him in Florence. Batistuta resolved to bring the club back into Series A. Under coach Claudio Ranieri, who had then taken over the team, Batistuta worked to improve Fiorentina's standing, scoring 16 goals in each of the 1992-1993 and 1993-1994 seasons. In 1994 he led the team to the Italian 2d Division League championship, thus realizing his aim to return Fiorentina to Series A.

Meanwhile, Batistuta helped the Argentinean national team win the 1993 Copa America championship, held that year in Ecuador. The following year he took part in his first World Cup as a member of the Argentinean national team, telling Paddy Agnew for the Irish Times (May 10, 1994), "I felt terrible when Fiorentina went down [to Series B] and this season has been really tough. You get knocked about a lot and have to play in empty stadiums and on bad pitches, but the thought of playing in the World Cup has kept me going." The Argentinean team arrived in the U.S., the host country for the 1994 World Cup, with high expectations--in addition to Batistuta, the team boasted such legendary players as Claudio Caniggia and Diego Maradona. Batistuta demonstrated his spirit in Argentina's opening match against Greece, held on June 21, 1994. Starting as mid-fielder, he gave an explosive performance, scoring three goals--a feat known as a hat-trick--and helping Argentina secure a 4-0 victory. In the two wins that followed, against Nigeria on June 25 and Bulgaria on June 31, Batistuta further assisted in Argentina's advance to the second round. However, after Maradona was dismissed for failing a random drug test, the Argentinean team lost momentum. In a memorable game on July 3, Romania halted Argentina's progress to the finals of the World Cup; Argentina lost the single-elimination match by a score of 3-2. Though Batistuta had played exceptionally well throughout the tournament, making a total of four goals, he returned to Italy disappointed. "Make no mistake, in 1994 we had a team that could have won the World Cup," he later told Andy Dunn for The People (June 28, 1998), "but we found it very hard to bear the shock of Diego's suspension. To have such a great chance and then blow it like that was a terrible shame--not least because I could have also finished a top scorer."

After returning to Fiorentina in the 1994-1995 season, Batistuta played his best soccer yet, scoring a record 26 goals in 32 games. That result distinguished him as the Series A Italian League's top scorer. The following season he led Fiorentina to a May 1996 Italian Cup (Coppa Italia) victory, only the fifth in the team's history. Four months later Fiorentina played in Italy's "Super Coppa" championship against Milan; two goals by Batistuta earned Florence the trophy. During the 1995-1996 season, Batistuta also played in his 100th Series A game. The city of Florence celebrated his 101st game--in which he scored two goals over Lazio in a 2-1 win--by erecting a life-size bronze statue in his image. Over the next few seasons, Batistuta continued his goal-scoring streak for Fiorentina; near the start of the 1997-1998 season, he made his 100th goal in Series A, marking another important milestone in his career.

While Batistuta's career was thriving in Italy, doubts emerged as to whether he would participate in Argentina's 1998 World Cup matches. For much of 1997, Coach Passarella had removed him from the national team and banned him from many of Argentina's qualifying competitions. According to several reports, the dismissal followed a series of disagreements between Batistuta and his coach, one of which involved Passarella's insistence that the player cut his famously long blond hair. (Passarella is known as a strict disciplinarian who once shocked Argentinean soccer fans when he banned all players who were homosexual, had long hair, or wore earrings from the national team.) Ultimately, Batistuta resolved his differences with the coach and rejoined the team, telling Andy Dunn: "It was not a comfortable situation for me. I was playing well and had a successful career behind me and a long history with the national team. I would have liked to have come to the World Cup in a different atmosphere but I came and tried to win my place back in training. Fortunately for everyone it has worked out."

Batistuta's made his first appearance in the 1998 World Cup, hosted by France, against Japan on June 14, 1998. In that game he scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory for Argentina. In Argentina's second match, this time against Jamaica on June 21, he made his second career World Cup hat trick, scoring three goals in a 5-0 Argentina win and gaining international attention for his remarkable scoring feats. (Batistuta donated the $25,000 he earned for the hat trick to the SOS Children's Village charity in Argentina.) Yet, despite the praise, Batistuta remained humble, telling one reporter for the London Independent (June 25, 1998), "I didn't come here to be the top scorer or the best player in the tournament. I came here to win the World Cup with Argentina." Batistuta's next goal in the World Cup came in a match against Britain on June 30. (Argentina had defeated Croatia 1-0 on June 26, thus advancing to the second round.) The goal, which resulted from a penalty by Britain in the early minutes of the game, was Batistuta's fifth in the 1998 World Cup; Argentina later won the match 4-3 in a dramatic penalty shootout after the game had stalled in a 2-2 tie. Argentina was eliminated from the World Cup after losing to the Netherlands 2-1 on July 4.

Upon leaving the 1998 World Cup, Batistuta told a reporter for the Agence France Presse (June 17, 1998), "I am going to take a one-month break and look at where I go from here." By this point his disappointment with Fiorentina's record was well-known throughout the soccer world; as a result, he was being actively recruited by several European teams, including Britain's Manchester United. As he told the Agence France Presse reporter, "Fiorentina are a great team, but the club certainly isn't. In Argentina, everyone knows Manchester United but the only ones who have heard of Fiorentina are people who follow me." Nevertheless, coach Giovanni Trapattoni, who joined Fiorentina in 1998, ultimately succeeded in convincing Batistuta to stay in Florence--at least for the time being. In 1998-1999 Fiorentina remained at the top of Series A for the first half of the season. But after Batistuta suffered a serious injury in February 1999 and was sidelined for more than a month, his team faltered. Though he scored 21 goals that year, Fiorentina finished the season third in Series A. The following year, 1999-2000, Batistuta scored 23 more goals for Fiorentina.

In 2000, after more than 250 appearances and 168 goals, Batistuta finally left Fiorentina. He signed with A.S. Roma for a transfer fee that reportedly amounted to around $30 million (L 22 million). The move put a great amount of pressure on Batistuta, as he explained to a reporter for the EFE News Service (March 28, 2001): "When I got to Rome, I found myself in a different world than in Florence," he said. "They already knew me here, so there were many expectations concerning what I could accomplish. I accepted Rome's offer because I want to win the championship. The team has everything it needs to win and is not 'Batistuta-dependent.'" Though a knee injury kept him off the field for part of the 2000-2001 season, Batistuta accomplished his aim in a single season: in June 2001 A.S. Roma celebrated its first Series A League championship title since 1983.

Argentina's national team entered the 2002 World Cup, which was co-hosted by Japan and Korea, with high expectations: the team had been undefeated for nearly two years, and had breezed through South America's World Cup qualifying competitions. Much was expected from Batistuta as well, as he had announced that he would retire from international soccer following the competition. Although he coveted a World Cup victory, he expressed measured optimism at his team's chances: "I think we're a very good team, among the best," he told Marcela Mora y Araujo for the London Guardian (May 18, 2002). "But let's face it, we're in the hardest group of the World Cup. No doubt about it. Nigeria are one of the strongest teams in Africa, the Swedes didn't lose once in the qualifying rounds, and England are a great team, always a danger at World Cup level." In Argentina's first game, against Nigeria on June 2, 2002, Batistuta scored the only goal of the match, bringing his team a 1-0 victory. It was his 10th World Cup goal--the sixth-highest total in the history of the World Cup. Unfortunately for Batistuta and his teammates, Argentina's winning streak came to an end on June 7 when they lost to England, 1-0; the team was eliminated from the tournament on June 12, after a 1-1 tie with Sweden prevented their advance to the second round. It was the first time since 1962 that Argentina had not advanced to the second round; Batistuta wept openly on the field. "I've had a beautiful 10 years or so playing for Argentina," he told a reporter for the Associated Press (June 12, 2002, on-line). "But this is my saddest moment. I had dreamed of ending my career in a different fashion. I had visions of retiring after lifting the cup in the final. But it didn't work out that way, and that's football." He added, "At least when I go to sleep tonight I will look back and know that I gave it my all."

Despite his departure from international soccer, Batistuta continues to play for A.S. Roma. He has not ruled out the possibility of ending his career with England's Manchester United: He recently told an interviewer for Corriere dello Sport, as quoted on his Web site (October 14, 2002), "I don't know if it's the next year or two, but I'll go to England as a player. Before then I want to enjoy a great year with Roma."

In addition to playing soccer, Batistuta has taken flying lessons, marketed his own patented anti-aging skin cream in Italy, and written the autobiographical essay "Batigoal tells Batistuta," for which he was named one of eight finalists for the 1998 Italian literary prize, the Bancarella Sport. He is known as a devout Catholic and dedicated family man, as well as an active philanthropist for international causes--particularly for charities aiding his beleaguered Argentina, which is suffering from the worst economic crisis in its history. Batistuta has expressed little interest in coaching or managing after his retirement from active play; instead, he and his father have purchased a farm in Reconquista--known as "Batistuta & Batistuta"--where he hopes to one day return to enjoy a simple life in the outdoors.

Gabriel Batistuta currently resides in Rome, Italy, with his wife, Irina, whom he married in December 1990, and their three sons: Thiago, Lucas, and Joaquin.

Suggested Reading: Agence France Presse Sports June 17, 1998, June 23, 1998; Deutsche Presse-Agentur Sports July 2, 1998; International Herald Tribune Sport p18 Oct. 2, 1997; Irish Times Sport p17 May 10, 1994; London Daily Mail p94+ Nov. 23, 1999, with photo; London Guardian Sports p6 May 18, 2002; London Independent F p25 June 7, 1998, Sport p30 June 25, 1998; London Mirror Sport p 59 Feb. 27, 1998, with photo, Sport p43 June 30, 1998, with photo, Sport p1+ Feb. 21, 2000, with photo; Scotland on Sunday T p6 Nov. 21, 1999; Sunday Mirror Sport p7 July 16, 2000