DIFFICULT AS IT might be to believe, Argentina haven’t won a major international tournament since Gabriel Batistuta was 24.
‘Batigol’ grabbed both in Argentina’s 2-1 victory over Mexico at – bear with us here – Estadio Monumental Isidro Romero Carbo, Guayaquil, Ecuador, exactly half his lifetime ago, and since then has watched Argentina lose five major finals – four in the Copa America, as well as the 2014 World Cup final.
Juventus striker Gonzalo Higuaín has played in three of them, and for all his goalscoring exploits at Real Madrid, Napoli and Juventus, is widely derided in his homeland having spurned golden opportunities which might have seen Argentina break their duck in any of the three.
The 29-year-old has scored 31 goals in 68 appearances for his country, but has never registered in the showpiece of a major tournament. Batistuta, however, is far from fond of the treatment of the former River Plate striker in Aegentina, and speaking to FIFA 1904, revealed he has spoken with Higuaín about his missed opportunities.
“They have had a lot of bad luck. Higuaín, especially, very bad luck,” said the former Fiorentina marksman, who himself hit the net 56 times in Argentinian colours. “He missed key chances in the three finals (two Copa Americas and one World Cup). I say it’s bad luck because in those three cases, he made the opportunities, it’s not like a team-mate did everything and he did nothing. He was in the right place at the right time. But then he was unlucky that he finished poorly.
“Against Germany, for example, he made a mistake in front of goal after having recovered the ball by being attentive and involved in the match; he did nine out of ten things right, everything…apart from scoring the goal. These things happen. If it had happened in another match, or at an earlier stage, it wouldn’t have mattered. On the contrary, we would all have applauded him for creating the situation in the first place.
I did say that to him, I talked to him. I see it as nine out of ten, right? But the fans don’t see it like that, they don’t know what goes through your head at such a moment. Especially in that last match with Chile when he ran several metres with the ball. Imagine what it’s like: from the moment he gets the ball until he shoots, what’s running through his mind is the chance he missed against Germany and the one in the previous final against Chile… all these thoughts complicate matters.
“Maybe it would have been easier if he got a rebound, without time to think. But that’s football.”
Since moving to Serie A, Higuaín has ploughed many of the same furrows as Batistuta did during his own heyday. In these parts, Batigol remains synonymous with Gazzetta Football Italia and a particularly iconic era of Italian football. The man himself, however, bemoans Serie A’s fall from grace, and when he’s asked if he even enjoys watching Italian football anymore, he’s as emphatic as he once was in front of goal.
“No, no. Football [in Italy] now is nothing like what we played. I hope that it’s in a period of renewal, and not just a debacle. But the football of the ’80s and ’90s was different. All the best players wanted to come to Italy.
That hasn’t been the case for quite a while, and the level has come down a bit. They still play very tactical, very disciplined football and all that, but they lack champions, as they say themselves. Looking from the outside at English football, at Spanish football, it’s more interesting, and they have the champions and the celebrities they want to see.
“But with the passion that Italians have for football, the pride that they have, I don’t think the game will stay that way. I think they’ll get back to being what they were before.”
The legendary striker also told of his physical struggles since retiring from the sport in 2005, aged 36, after a spell in Qatar which yielded riches both on and off the field.
“I lived and breathed football,” he said. “Now I have difficulty walking because of that: because I gave much more than I actually had to give.”
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