It’s been over 9 years since Gabriel Batistuta decided to hang up his boots and end his playing career which has seen him scoring 78 goals which is the highest amount that has been scored by any Argentine player and Batistuta also made his presence known in Italy as he made over 260 appearances for the Italian club where he managed to find the back of the net on 168 occasions.

There are some footballers that continue being praised and glorified even after having finalized their respective playing careers and Gabriel Batistuta is one of them, according to these experts. He certainly won’t be forgotten as the player is an icon for the younger generation of rising stars.

Luis Suarez is one of the footballers who is being mentioned most in this season due to the contributions that he has made to help Barcelona in this season. The Uruguayan player has scored 11 goals in 23 appearances as well as scoring twice against PSG in the first leg of the Champions League between Barcelona and the French side.

Even though Luis Suarez and Gabriel Batistuta have different nationalities, Suarez revealed that Batistuta is one of his football idols.

“It’s not that I wanted to copy him or be him, but I admired him a lot during his time at Fiorentina, and afterwards at Roma, and I admired how he played” Barcelona’s Luis Suarez said.

During the playing career of Batistuta, he managed on performing with: Newell’s Old Boys, River Plate, Boca Juniors, Fiorentina, As.Roma, Inter Milan and Al Arabi but despite not being one of the top European clubs, it was with Fiorentina where he stood out as he scored 168 goals and the retired footballer was placed into the hall of fame of the Italian side earlier in October of 2014.

“From the moment I arrived at Fiorentina I wanted a place in the history of the club  and now I can say I have succeeded.” Those were the words that Gabriel Batistuta said during the speech that he delivered at the event as Batistuta has marked his name in the history-books of Fiorentina and the world of football.