Gabriel Omar Batistuta says he does not enjoy playing football anymore, and the reason sits in his body: two pieces of titanium in his ankles. The 57-year-old now lives in Reconquista, raises cows and looks at the game with distance after a career that left him far from the pitch he once ruled.
“Non mi divertivo in campo, non sono nato Maradona...” Batistuta said, drawing the contrast himself between the player he was expected to be and the player he actually was. That blunt line lands alongside the physical reality of two titanium pieces in his ankles, a reminder that retirement for him is not just a change of job but a change of daily movement.
Reconquista and the cows
Batistuta’s present is rural and measured. He is in Reconquista raising cows, and he also said he comments matches for Telemundo while traveling the world with Fifa. The shift is sharp: from a forward whose career was built on repetition, impact and pressure, to a former striker who now spends part of his life away from stadiums and part of it still inside the sport as a voice, not a runner.
That split runs through his comments on the game too. He said he watches football with calm detachment, not the urgency of a player chasing minutes or goals. For a man known as one of Argentina’s landmark strikers, the distance is the point: he still follows the sport closely, but he no longer speaks like someone who wants the ball at his feet.
Argentina, Scaloni and Lautaro
His comments on Argentina were direct. Batistuta said he is not calm about the match against Capo Verde, and he stressed that group-stage games are different from matches played to advance or go home. He also backed Scaloni, saying the coach has the team working well and keeps the group united by not celebrating too much or getting angry too much.
He extended that logic to the attack. Batistuta said Lautaro should play if he is doing well, while Julian Alvarez is strong enough to deserve a place because he is a world champion. He framed the choice as Scaloni’s to make, which fits the way he described the squad: a team that arrived and acted like it had won nothing, even though he called that difficult to do in football.
World Cup talk with Telemundo
Batistuta also tied his current role to the World Cup. He said that two years ago he already thought the final would be France-Argentina, and he repeated that view without changing it. The same interview also had him talking about New York, where he said he liked the stadium and the pre-match ritual, especially seeing every player sing the anthem and the giant flags.
He widened the lens beyond his own generation. Batistuta said the World Cup is also about goalkeepers, pointing to Vozinha and Gill, and he said 9-10 goals would have been needed to become top scorer. He also said Loco Bielsa will always remain the most important coach for him, a final reminder that even after two titanium ankles and a life in Reconquista, the football still follows him.
