Batistuta resume — 200 goals and a near-empty cupboard

Batistuta is deservedly rated as one of the world’s best centre-forwards and has been courted in the past by the likes of Manchester United and Real Madrid.

But while other clubs have won league titles and European Cups, Batistuta’s 200 goals for Fiorentina have brought him just one Italian Cup, in 1996, and the Italian Super Cup before the start of the following season.

Under club President Vittorio Cecchi Gori, Fiorentina have never put together a truly winning team, either on the pitch or in the boardroom — the latest upset being a row between the movie Mogul and his Director General, and former playmaker, Giancarlo Antognoni.

Batistuta, who fans worship as `Batigol’ and the `Lion King’, has criticised the club on both counts in recent seasons, often threatening during the summer break not to return.

But the man who stuck by his club when they were relegated in 1993 has always come back — albeit a little richer.

In the summer of 1997, he fell out with Cecchi Gori over his contract and said he wasn’t returning. They made up. Before the 1998 World Cup he told reporters: “Fiorentina are a great team, but the club certainly isn’t.”

United coach Sir Alex Ferguson thought he’d finally got his man, before Batistuta was once again persuaded to stay on.

Fiorentina started the 1998-99 season in style as Batistuta hit 18 goals in 19 games to send them soaring to the top of the table.

But it all came tumbling down when Batistuta suffered a serious injury in February 1999. There was no replacement for him up front and when he returned, he only scored three more goals that season.

Coach Giovanni Trapattoni persuaded him to stay on for a crack at the European Champions League — a hope which all but evaporated with last month’s 3-1 defeat to United at Old Trafford.

The subsequent 3-3 home draw with Bordeaux, which saw the team whistled off the pitch by the home fans and Trapattoni’s announcement that he was quitting at the end of the season, saw the team sink to new lows.

“If we play like that against Perugia on Saturday, we won’t even qualify for the Intertoto tournament,” snapped Batistuta, adding: “And we’d prove that we deserved to be knocked out of the Champions League.

“It’s a shame, because on other occasions we’ve proved that we deserved to be there,” said the skipper, whose match winner against Arsenal at Wembley has been one of the highlights of the competition.

At 31, with a near-empty trophy cupboard and his team now mid-table, Batistuta could be forgiven for having a few regrets that he stayed in Tuscany, rather than move to a top club in Italy’s grimy industrial North.

“There’s always the hope of playing again in the Champions League, but for me it’s going to be difficult,” he said. “I’ ve got a contract here.

“What’s more to the point is that I’d like to carry on enjoying my football for as long as possible and to score a lot more goals,” he said.

“Even though,” he admitted, “every so often I have a few regrets at having spent my career at Fiorentina, especially when things happen as they did to Antognoni, because you think you’ve put together a project and then you realise that it’s only a `virtual’ one.”

Batistuta was back on target against Bologna on Saturday. But he left the stadium unhappy after the latest dust-up between Cecchi Gori and Antognoni.

“I’m going home sad,” he said after notching his double century. “It’s difficult to play in conditions like these. My sacrifice has served no purpose, not even for the future.

“What do I want?,” he asked reporters. “A club that’s professional.”