The incredible anecdote of Gabriel Batistuta when he lived in Australia and posed as an anti-football

This Saturday from 4pm Argentina national team Y Australia They will meet in the round of 16 Qatar World Cup 2022. Right now on the ground of the University of Qatar, Lionel Scaloni prepares the team for the match against Socceroos with concern for the physical state of Ángel Di María.

It will be a key and decisive match. While the Australians don’t have a great World Cup history, one of Argentina’s top goalscorers is linked to the oceanic country. A special relationship.

when Gabriel Batistuta He hung up his boots in March 2005, plagued by joint pain and chronic ankle injuries, he made the decision to go and live in a quiet place away from the maelstrom of Elite football. Australia loomed as the perfect place for his long rest.

batgol moved to Perth, the state capital of Western Australia, in May of the same year. Came to this city by googling. In the search engine he put “the city with the best quality of life in the world”. And he enjoyed two years of anonymity and peace of mind.

In a society where the favorite sports are cricket, rugby or even Australian football, who at the time was the top scorer in the history of the Argentine national team (later surpassed by Lionel Messi) went unnoticed. So much so that he experienced an unusual situation. on the eve of Germany 2006 World CupBatistuta was asked a particular question.

“The World Cup came to Germany and everyone was talking because, apart from Australia, they were at the World Cup. And there were people who said to me ‘do you like football?’. ‘No, sort of, I prefer golf,’ she would reply. Some soccer players killed ‘there are 20 running after a ball'”, said the man from Santa Fe in an interview with Alejandro Fantino a ESPN.

batgol told more about this particular chat with a group of Australians: “And they asked me if I understood. I told him ‘I don’t understand anything, I don’t like it’. And that’s how she wore it.”

To expand on this incredible anecdote, Batistuta has revealed that he also wants to explain the rules of the World Cup: “That’s right, there are 32 teams, then they play the group stage…”.

Later, the former striker of Boca, Fiorentina and Roma, among others, explained to his chat mates that he had been a footballer and had played in three World Cups and his interlocutors could not believe it.

Back when he lived in Perth, beat He was tempted by several Australian clubs and even that country’s soccer team to become a manager. But he never wanted to wear the DT Diver. Beyond the anecdotes, he keeps a heartfelt memory of the country of kangaroos, which he defines as one of the best places to live for the high quality of life.

This Saturday from 16:00, the Argentina national team and the Socceroos They will meet at the Ahmad bin Ali stadium for the round of 16 of the World Cup in Qatar 2022.

GL