The World Cup’s most iconic players: Argentina striker Gabriel Batistuta aka ‘Batigol’
There are just 55 days to go until the 2018 World Cup begins and talkSPORT.com is counting them down by looking at the competition's most wonderful players.
This list, featuring Pele, Diego Maradona and Zinedine Zidane, looks at the greatest moments from the most iconic footballers - from great goal scorers and majestic defenders to sensational scoundrels and those who just didn’t know the rules.
55) Gabriel Batistuta: Argentina: forward (1994, 1998, 2002)
From Luis Monti, to Mario Kempes and Lionel Messi and not forgetting the man they called 'Batigol'. He is one of just a dozen players to score 10 or more World Cup goals and Batistuta struck shots with such controlled violence you’d think he had a vendetta against balls. And nets. Yet his career on the grandest stage is one of narrow, agonising failure. Three World Cups, but never beyond the quarter-final stage. A case of premature ejection for one of the game’s great finishers.
talkSPORT is your home of the 2018 World Cup. Tune in all throughout the summer to hear live commentary of every game, and visit talkSPORT.com for expert views and analysis of the big games and key moments from Russia.?