With Passarella as the protagonist: the story behind Gabriel Batistuta's pass from River to Boca

The former forward of the Argentine National Team left the Millionaire due to a decision by the Kaiser and went to Xeneize.

Gabriel Omar Batistuta He was one of the extraordinary forwards that Argentine soccer had. In turn, he is one of the players who wore the two most important shirts in Argentine soccer: river and mouth. But, behind the pass from the former millionaire striker to Xeneize, Daniel Alberto Passarella was one of the protagonists for it to materialize. I know the story.

Gabriel Batistuta began football in Newell’s and quickly aroused the interest of River that, by decision of Reinaldo Merlodecided to sign him. “When I arrived at River I had not turned 20. Merlo saw me and went to look for me at Newell’s. He loved me and made me play all the games of that long championship”remembered the bati in Without anesthesia about how he arrived at the Monumental.

However, he also narrated what the break was so that, later, it is not taken into account in River: “When the president leaves, everything changes. When Passarella arrives, he never saw me. I was unemployed for six months and I didn’t play anymore. That’s when Aimar takes me to Boca. Evidently the Cai saw something that Passarella did not see“.

With the arrival of the Kaiser to River, the striker was not one of his favorite players. Beyond that, the DT had a certain fear that he would go to play for a great player in the country, stand out, and that the responsibility of letting him go would fall on his shoulders.

It was August 1990 and after having spent 8 months in command of the River First Division, Daniel Alberto Passarella had a chat with Settimio Aloisioa businessman at the time, in which he asked him if everything was closed for him to return to Newell’s and it is not a direct rival to which they would be reinforcing with the arrival of batistuta.

aloisio he assured passarella that Gabriel Batistuta was to be directed by Marcelo Bielsa in Newell’s. However, in the middle everything changed and the former striker did not put on the La Lepra shirt.

when Batigol He terminated his contract with River, who owned half of his passin partnership with Mr. Settimio, Mouth made an offer for the striker. “I have good and bad memories. The beautiful thing happened in the first stage of the championship, led by Merlo. And I did well, like I scored the decisive goal against San Lorenzo to win the Liguilla and qualify River for the Copa Libertadores. But when Passarella arrived, my cycle ended. I had no chance, I had nothing… The peace of mind that remains is that I did not fail, in any case they did not let me succeed. The times I came to play, Passarella gave me ten minutes and because other players were missing. It was like filling in and I’m not up for that at 21 years old”declared Batistuta when he left Núñez.

The Kaiser did not remain silent and responded to the footballer’s expressions: “It’s a lie that I threw Batistuta out. It happened that a good economic opportunity arose for River, which was very hard-pressed at that time, and since I had Medina Bello and Polillita Da Silva as starters, at a high level of performance I said okay so they could negotiate it. But I never disqualified him as a footballer”.

Batistuta left the Millionaire and became a reinforcement of Boca, where he spent 11 months and was directed by Carlos Aimar. With the blue and gold shirt he played 47 games and scored 19 goalswhich earned him the call to the Argentine National Team by decision of Alfio Basile, who was the coach at the time. In addition, he made the leap to Europe after being signed by Fiorentina in Italy, where he became an idol of the club.

On the day that Gabriel Batistuta celebrates his 55th birthday, we remember the story behind the transfer of the former striker from River to Boca, which later catapulted him to Italy and the Argentine National Team.

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