The 1990s was perhaps the last great decade for centre-forwards. With coaches yet to shift to one-striker systems, variations of 4-4-2 were the norm across Europe. The decade was full of lethal strikers. Marco van Basten was king at the start of the 1990s; Ronaldo was phenomenal towards the end; and Romario, George Weah, Jürgen Klinsmann and Alan Shearer sprinkled some magic in between. But nobody stayed the course like Gabriel Batistuta.
Batistuta arrived left Boca Juniors for Fiorentina in 1991 and hit double figures in the league in each of the next 10 season. He was top scorer in Serie A with 26 goals in the 1994-95 season, which might not sound extraordinary in the age of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, but was the gold standard of world football back then.
In a less globalised time, Batistuta was perhaps the quintessential exotic footballer: he had won titles with both River Plate and Boca Juniors in Argentina; he was a two-time Copa América champion with Argentina; his long, stringy mane gave him the look of a lion crossed with a 1980s glam metal frontman; he predominantly played in purple; and his surname had more than two syllables. He was a world away from the up-and-at-em world of the early Premier League.
7) Manchester United v FIORENTINA, Champions League, 2000
Had Batistuta taken up life as an assassin, his preferred method of dispatching victims would have been a shotgun blast. When he struck a ball, it stayed struck.
It’s March 2000 and neither Manchester United nor Fiorentina have scored when, in the 16th minute, Batistuta receives a pass from Angelo Di Livio some 30 yards from goal. He sidesteps Jaap Stam with ease and smashes the ball right down Mark Bosnich’s throat at a lightning speed, as if Bosnich had somehow offended him. From nowhere, Fiorentina have the lead in Manchester.
Sir Alex Ferguson had chased Batistuta for years and, in 2017, former United chairman Martin Edwards revealed that a deal had been close but the club blocked it as they were worried about disrupting their wage structure.
6) Inter v FIORENTINA, Coppa Italia semi-final, 1996
Batistuta could also kill softly. He tormented Inter in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final in 1996, scoring a hat-trick that included a beautifully deft goal. But he wasn’t quite done with the tie. In the second leg, Batistuta produced this chipped marvel at San Siro to emphatically seal Fiorentina’s place in the final.
Breaking from an Inter attack, Francesco Baiano plays an intelligent one-two with the majestic Rui Costa down the left. Baiano drives deep into the Inter half before sliding the ball into the path of Batistuta, who runs into the box. With only Gianluca Pagliuca to beat, Batistuta opts for grace rather than power, chipping the ball over the keeper and into the top corner.
Fiorentina went on to beat Atalanta 3–0 over two legs in the final with Batistuta, of course, scoring two of the three goals.
5) Benfica v FIORENTINA, Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-final, 1997
La Viola’s success in the Coppa Italia gave them a jaunt into European competition for the first time in seven years. Gloria Bistrita and Sparta Prague were seen off in the earlier rounds to set up a quarter-final with Benfica.
Baiano gave Fiorentina the lead in the last minute of the first half and, with the clock ticking past the 90th minute, Giovanni Piacentini burst down the wing and whipped a cross towards Batistuta, who met the ball with an astonishing volley that gave Benfica keeper Michel Preud’homme no chance.
Batistuta faced Ronaldo for the first time in the semi-final, as Fiorentina’s run ended against eventual winners Barcelona, with Batistuta again scoring in the first leg.
4) Parma v ROMA, Serie A, February 2001
Imagine the scene: Fabio Capello is sitting at home in the summer of 2000, staring at his expensive collection of art, quietly seething about how Roma’s city rivals, Lazio, had won the league on the final day of the season while his side finished sixth. Something had to be done. Then it comes to him: he needs a new striker.
Capello goes through a list: “Hernán Crespo? No. David Trezeguet? No. Filippo Inzaghi? No. Gabriel Batistuta? Yes!” Capello gets on the phone to Franco Baldini. The story of how Capello and Baldini schemed to bring Batistuta to Rome is an examination in the art of massaging a president’s ego. Batistuta, then 31, cost £23.5m, a record for a player over 30 and one that would last for 17 years.
This goal shows why he cost all that money. Ghosting between Fabio Cannavaro and Lillian Thuram, he meets Walter Samuel’s long ball and sends it past Gigi Buffon with a controlled volley. Roma went six points clear of Juventus and never looked back. Batistuta scored 20 goals in Serie A that season and finally won his first Scudetto at the age of 32. Money well spent.
3) Udinese v FIORENTINA, Serie A, August 1997
Fila. Nintendo. Batistuta: A 9.9 on the 1990s nostalgia Richter scale.
It’s the first day of the season and Fiorentina are in Udine facing that season’s surprise package; Udinese would finish third in Serie A, two places above Fiorentina. It’s 2-2 in the 90th minute and Batistuta has already scored twice, including a free-kick form 30 yards. The ball is floated towards the Udinese box and Batistuta wins the initial header. The second is won by an Udinese defender, who, for reasons unknown, heads the ball back to Batistuta. Now inside the D, the Fiorentina striker executes a flawless bicycle kick that arrows into the corner of Massimiliano Caniato’s goal. There are worse ways to complete a hat-trick.
2) FIORENTINA v Napoli, Serie A, February 1996
“He’s incredible. An animal. If we played in Europe he would win the Ballon d’Or,” said Fiorentina coach Claudio Ranieri after a 3–0 win in which Batistuta seemed to make it his personal mission to humiliate Napoli goalkeeper Giuseppe Taglialatela. Either that or the presence in the crowd of supermodel Naomi Campbell spurred him to produce not one but two big moments.
Batistuta’s first goal is a textbook free-kick. Then, 15 minutes before the end, he adds the coup de grâce. Rui Costa switches the ball to right-back Michele Serena, who races down the pitch. Just as Serena is about to release a pass to the rampaging Batistuta, the ball takes a bobble. Serena’s pass lands on Batistuta’s chest. He controls it at full speed, smashes a half-volley down the middle of the goal and celebrates furiously, all without breaking stride.
1) Arsenal v FIORENTINA, Champions League, October 1999
Batistuta was 30 when he made his debut in the Champions League. For anyone in England who had missed the Football Italia phenomenon – or his hat-tricks at USA 94 and France 98 – this was a chance to see just how good he was. Batistuta did not disappoint.
A tense game was ebbing and flowing one way and then the other until, in the 76th minute, Jörg Heinrich burst deep into Arsenal’s half and slide the ball to Batistuta on the edge of the box. Faced with defender Nigel Winterburn, Batistuta controls the pass with his right foot, shifting the ball on to his left and dragging it forward, all in a few nanoseconds.
Winterburn, sensing he cannot match Batistuta’s physicality, lunges in desperately. It makes little difference. Batistuta blasts the ball high into David Seaman’s net from the tightest of angles. Winterburn had only given him several yards of space. It was several too many.
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