Purple brings you luck

In the era of social distancing, watching the videos showing Gabriel Omar Batistuta playing soccer in the past is surreal. Nobody, during that magical period between 1991 and 2005, is able to keep the distance from him: supporters, coaches and teammates express the constant need to exult for the supernatural goals he scored.

17 June 2020

As in all legends, the hero’s origins are humble: born in Argentina in 1969, Batistuta is son of a butcher and a school worker. During his teenage he loves to play basketball, but the gift of a poster picturing Maradona persuades him in approaching that career as a striker that made him a myth.

In 1991 he starts playing for ACF Fiorentina and his professional rise as well: Batigol or Lion King – these are his nicknames – is the man of records. But a legend can be real only by dealing with darkness. After his achievements in AS Roma, FC Inter and Al-Arabi, Batigol retires on May 13, 2005, not without issues. ‘My ankles are naturally fragile, I’ve been tortured by sprains. I have been using painkillers for a long time. As I retired, I found my ankles destroyed, without cartilage’. He said in an interview that he asked a doctor to amputate his legs: luckily, instead of indulging, he decided to make him operate in Basel.

In September 2019 Batistuta got a prothesis was, starting a physical rehabilitation right after that. The career of the Lion King is plenty of tears: of joy, anger, frustration. Some of them wet a purple t-shirt, there’s a FILA logo on it.

About

Born in Biella in the foothills of the ltalian Alps, WONNIE is a ski-loving white bear. Because he is from the snow­covered Alps, he is vulnerable to hot weather, and despite his size he has timid personality so he is always blushing. WONNIE is a gentle bear with heart of gold who easily find faults with himself even with small things but never blames others.