Gabriel Batistuta

Batistuta got married to his teenage girlfriend Irina Fernandez on 28 December 1990. The couple has four sons- Thiago, Lucas, Joaquin and Shamel.

Gabriel Omar Batistuta was born in Avellaneda, Santa Fe, Argentina on 1st February 1969 to Omar Batistuta and Gloria Zilli. His father was employed at a slaughterhouse while his mother worked as a secretary in a school. Batistuta was the eldest of four children.

Following Argentina’s first World Cup win in 1978, Batistuta was inspired to take up football seriously. Like many South American footballers, he started off by playing street football and joined the little known club Grupo Algeria. Subsequently he moved to the junior team of Platense.

In 1988, he joined Newell’s Old Boys club based in Rosario after scoring 2 goals in a game against the club but his time at the club was not fruitful as he could not adapt in a new city and also suffered from weight problems. Batistuta netted 7 times for the club and helped them reach the final of Copa Libertadores. He also played on loan for Deportivo Italiano, a relatively minor club.

He joined Argentine giants River Plate in 1989 but did not have a successful time at the club as he hardly got to play many games so the following year he moved to Boca Juniors, one of the biggest clubs in Argentina. Batistuta came into his own at Boca Juniors as he scored 13 league goals for the club and helped them win the league.

In 1991, Batistuta was selected to play for the Argentine national team for the Copa America and he helped the team win the tournament by scoring six goals. Batistuta emerged as the top scorer in the tournament and subsequently signed for Italian club Fiorentina, who were impressed by his performance at the tournament.

He became a key member of the Fiorentina team after joining the club in 1991 and became one of the most prolific scorers in the Italian league. In his fourth season at the club, he became the top scorer in the league with a total of 26 goals and helped the club win the Supercoppa as well as the Coppa Italia. However, the coveted first division title continued to elude the club throughout the 9 seasons that he spent at the club. He scored 168 league goals for Fiorentina.

In 1993, he helped Argentina win the Copa America and scored two goals in the final to round off the tournament. The following year at the World Cup in USA, Argentina were knocked out in the round of 16 but Batistuta scored 4 goals and also netted a hat trick.

In the 1998 World Cup in France, Batistuta scored a hat trick in the group stage game against Jamaica and earned the rare distinction of being only the fourth player to have scored two hat tricks in World Cup competition. However, Argentina was knocked out in the quarter finals. At the following World Cup in Japan and Korea, Argentina was knocked out in the first round.

Batistuta is the highest ever goal scorer for Argentina with a total of 56 goals.

He is the all time top scorer in the history of Fiorentina with 184 goals to his name.

He was included in ‘FIFA 100’, a list compiled by Pele on the greatest living players.