Iconic Argentine marksman Gabriel Batistuta has offered his expert evaluation on the current landscape of global goalscorers, highlighting three specific individuals who currently stand above the rest. During a featured segment on the digital platform Rio Ferdinand Presents, the former Roma star was pressed to crown a singular definitive number nine in today’s game.
The 57-year-old found the task of selecting just one player to be particularly challenging. Instead of narrowing his choice to a lone figure, he identified Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé, Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, and Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martínez as the premier trio in world football. Batistuta noted that their shared ability to find the back of the net with relentless consistency is what defines their elite status.
The former striker, who remains a revered figure in Italian football after clinching a Serie A championship during the 2000-01 campaign with Roma, retired from the professional game in 2005. For many years, he held the record as Argentina’s most prolific scorer, netting 56 times across 78 international appearances, a feat that stood until Lionel Messi eclipsed the mark in 2016.
Discussing the difficulty of the selection and his specific observations on the Manchester City forward, Batistuta remarked:
“Very tough. I could say (Kylian) Mbappe, but I could say Lautaro Martinez, I could say Haaland. They just score every match,” Batistuta said.
“Haaland surprised me because he’s always in the right position, and if you give him three balls, he will score a fourth. You see him, he looks slow, looks like (not interested) and then boom”.
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