Wembley, Manchester United and a sale to Roma: Batistuta's last Fiorentina years

Three months after winning the Coppa Italia, Fiorentina went to Milan for the Supercoppa Italiana. On 25 August 1996 they beat Milan 2–1, and Gabriel Batistuta scored both goals. No club had won the Supercoppa as cup holders before.

The Camp Nou

That season's Cup Winners' Cup took Fiorentina to a semi-final against Barcelona, who had Ronaldo. The first leg was at the Camp Nou on 10 April 1997, in front of 105,000. Miguel Ángel Nadal headed Barcelona in front just before half-time. Just after the hour Batistuta met the ball on the left of the area and hit a right-footed half-volley over Vítor Baía, who got a finger to it but couldn't keep it out.

Batistuta usually celebrated by firing an imaginary machine gun. This time he put a finger to his lips and spun round among his team-mates.

Barcelona won the second leg 2–0 in Florence on 24 April. In Serie A Fiorentina finished ninth, and Claudio Ranieri, the coach who had taken them out of Serie B, left for Valencia.

Malesani

On the opening day of 1997–98, 31 August, Alberto Malesani's Fiorentina won 3–2 at Udinese with a Batistuta hat-trick, two of the goals coming late on. Malesani went to celebrate with the away fans and was nicknamed "l'allenatore ultrà", the ultra coach. The Brazilian forward Edmundo joined in January. Batistuta scored 24 goals, and Fiorentina qualified for the UEFA Cup. Malesani left that summer for Parma.

Top at the halfway point

His replacement was Giovanni Trapattoni, back from Bayern Munich. Tomáš Řepka, Guillermo Amor, Jörg Heinrich and Moreno Torricelli were signed, and Batistuta and Edmundo stayed. In September Batistuta scored a hat-trick at San Siro.

In the UEFA Cup, Fiorentina's second leg against Grasshoppers on 3 November 1998 was played in Salerno. A firecracker thrown from the stands injured the fourth official, and UEFA awarded the match 3–0 to Grasshoppers, which put Fiorentina out.

The league went better. On 17 January 1999 Fiorentina beat Cagliari 4–2 and were top at the halfway point, three points clear of Lazio and Parma and five ahead of Milan.

On 7 February they played Milan at home. Late in the game Batistuta went down with a knee ligament injury, and he was out for more than a month. Edmundo left straight after the match for the carnival in Rio, which a clause in his contract allowed. "I'm going to Rio and I don't know if I'll come back," he said. "Nobody asked me to stay, and if they had I'd have gone anyway."

"I'm not talking about Edmundo," said Trapattoni. "I'd certainly rather have lost the game than have Batistuta injured."

The following week Fiorentina lost at Udinese and gave up the lead. Milan won the title, Lazio were second and Fiorentina third. They also reached the Coppa Italia final, against Malesani's Parma, and lost it on away goals.

Wembley

Third place took Fiorentina into the Champions League. Their first group had Barcelona, Arsenal and AIK in it. By the time they went to Wembley to play Arsenal on 27 October 1999 they had lost three games in a row.

In the 75th minute Pasquale Firicano won the ball, Heinrich broke and found Batistuta, and Batistuta scored with his right foot. Near the end Kanu had a chance to equalise, and Francesco Toldo saved. "The ball came off the post to Kanu, three metres from me," he said. "It was the save of the year." Fiorentina won 1–0, Arsenal were out, and the players became "i Leoni di Wembley", the Lions of Wembley.

The second group stage put them with Manchester United, the reigning European champions, as well as Valencia and Bordeaux. On 23 November 1999, in front of 40,000 at the Franchi, Batistuta scored in the 24th minute and Abel Balbo added a second early in the second half. Fiorentina won 2–0. They finished third in the group and went out, and ended seventh in Serie A. Batistuta scored 28 goals that season, 23 of them in the league.

The sale

On 14 May 2000 Batistuta spoke about leaving. "I'll never say what bothered me about the club," he said. "I think it's right to change, so I don't suffer any more."

Vittorio Cecchi Gori had already said where he would go. "If I have to sell Batistuta, I'll sell him to Roma." The deal was done in late May, for 70 billion lire, the most ever paid for a player over 30. Batistuta was 31. On 6 June the Curva Sud welcomed him at the Olimpico. "I'm here to win," he said.

Roma won the title the following season. Twenty-five years later Cecchi Gori still claimed some of the credit. He had signed Batistuta for one and a half billion lire, he said, and without him Roma "would never have won the scudetto".