He therefore joined the professional football club of Newell's Old Boys Club, whose coach was Marcelo Bielsa, who was later also his coach in the National Team.
Things didn't come easy for him during the first year. He was away from home, his family and his girlfriend Irina, sleeping in a room in the stadium, and had a weight problem that slowed him down. At the end of that year he was lent to the smaller team Deportivo Italiano, of Buenos Aires, with whom he participated in the Carnevale Cup in Italy, ending as top scorer with 3 goals.
At mid-1989 he made a jump to one of Argentina's biggest clubs, River Plate, where he scored 17 goals, but in mid-season coach Daniel Passarella (with whom he had later confrontation as they met in the national team) dropped him from the team.
In 1990 Batistuta signed for the other biggest Argentinean team, Boca Juniors, who he was already keen on. Having gone so long without playing he again found it hard to find his best form. At the beggining of 1991 Oscar Tabarez became Boca's coach, and gave Batistuta support and confidence to become top scorer of that season, winning the local championship.
In 1991 Batistuta Batistuta joined Fiorentina where he stayed for 9 seasons. He was held for the 1999-2000 season by the chance of winning both the Scudetto and the Champions League. But, not fulfilling his dream, he decided to move to A.S. Roma in a transfer worth 30 million US dollars.
In spite of a knee injury that kept him out for a few matches, he scored 20 goals for A.S. Roma and finally realized his dream: the Italian first division Scudetto. It was also the first championship won by Roma since 1983.
After an incredible performance by the Argentina in the qualification matches for the 2002 World Cup, undefeated for almost 2 years, Batistuta planned to quit the National Team by the end of the tournament, and certainly hoped to do it holding the Trophy. But Argentina's "group of death" proved to be so, as with results 1-0, 0-1 and 1-1 against Nigeria, England and Sweden the team had to go home before the second round for the first time since 1962.
In 2004, he was named to the FIFA 100 list of 125 Greatest Living Footballers
Back to Italy, Batistuta failed to find form with Roma and was loaned out to Internazionale, where he failed to make any impression. He ended his career playing in Qatar for Al-Arabi before retiring in 2005.
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