GABRIEL BATISTUTA

Gabriel Omar Batistuta is now, was and always will be remembered as one of the strongest and most talented striker in the world. He is a rich man, beautiful, famous, envied by men and desired by women. But he, like everyone, was small, insignificant, tender and penniless. He, like many of us, has had it rough too, with sad stories and troubled periods.

Gabriel never wanted to look back therefore he forged ahead. Indeed, he took all life had to offer intensely, fully aware of the obstacles and problems that entailed. What we have today, Gabriel, has rightfully earned through the sacrifice, sweat, suffering, by overcoming a thousand natural selections that life requires to reach the top. A beautiful baby, radiant and plump. So it was Batigol on 1 February 1969, when he cried for the first time in the world the joy of being born. Avellaneda, his country of origin, did not know that day to give birth to one of football's brightest stars of the 90s. From this village (and not from Reconquista, who also lived close to the growth of Bati), part of the legend.

Childhood lived in the footsteps of the irreplaceable figure of Melchior grandfather and father under the aegis of Osmar, a person of the old school, dignified in his role as head of the family, upright in his being a man. Childhood enriched by the deep love of mother Gloria. The unconscious carelessness of 'gringo' Gabriel did not allow him to take seriously a serious and mysterious economic crisis which struck the family savings and ordered him, for a time, to live at the poverty line. But the little Gabriel has never lacked joy and zest for life. Its boundaries were restricted: Bati enough to catch, kick a ball and dream, dream. His imagination, however, did not come to embrace his ambition. He stopped a little 'before. In the mind of 'gordo' (in the meantime Gabriel had put on a few extra pounds too), remained a nebulous zone, indecipherable: precisely that where one day he ascribed his bright future.

Even in the family tree of Batistuta, Gabriel was a white fly. After a male, Osmar and Gloria had three beautiful girls: Elisa, Alejandra and Gabriela. No envy, perhaps a bit 'jealous at first, but since the age of fifteen years, the attention of Gabriel intensely focused only on a feminine softness: Irina Fernandez, his star. Was sighted Bati, also the occasion: he did not hesitate a moment to scupper his flirt with a girl to win Irina, beauty personified.

It all happened at a party, but it was not love at first sight. The curious will be stunned: the first courtship Bati was rejected. On the contrary: ignored. Irina, the birthday girl that night danced with everyone at least for five minutes, for the 'gringo' only a few small step, magic, and then the spell was gone. Gabriel certainly was not impressive and man, he was famous and fascinating as now. But even his character was one of his best qualities shine through: the determination. Even in small things Bati never gave up. In fact, December 28, 1990, in the church of San Roque, Gabriel brought to the altar Irina and uttered the most important "YES" of his life.