Gabriel Batistuta: Encyclopedia II - Gabriel Batistuta - Early Life

Gabriel Batistuta - Early Life

Batistuta was born on 1 February 1969 to slaughterhouse worker Omar Batistuta and school secretary Gloria Batistuta in the town of Avellaneda, Santa Fe Province, Argentina, but grew up in the near city of Reconquista. After him, his parents Omar and Gloria Batistuta had three girls named Elisa, Alejandra and Gabriela.

At the age of 16 he met the love of his life on her 15th birthday (a rite of passage that is a large celebration in Argentina). It is said that Irina Fernandez completely ignored him at the beginning, but some 5 years later, on the 28th of December, 1990, Irina and Gabriel were married at the Saint Roque Church. The couple moved to Florence in 1991, and a year later their son Thiago was born.

Thanks to good performances in the Italian championship and with the Argentina national football team, he gained fame and respect. He filmed several commercials, and was invited onto numerous TV shows, but in spite of this, Batistuta always remained a low-profile family figure.

In 1997 Batistuta's second son, Lucas, was born, and a third son, Joaquín, followed in 1999. In 2000 the Batistuta family moved to Rome and two years later to Milan, following Gabriel's changes of team. In 2002, after more than 10 years in Italy, the family moved to Qatar. A fourth son, Shamel, was born in 2003.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Early Life", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki