Cassano’s Batistuta, the enmity that started over a macchiato: “I put my finger from my nose into the milk…”

Gabriel Batistuta, the legendary striker of Fiorentina, is remembered as the Lion King in Rome, where he was the protagonist of the last championship title achieved by the yellow-reds, under the leadership of Capello and the management of Sens. The Argentinian striker arrived in the summer of 2000, scored 20 goals and brought the title to the red and yellow Roma. And yet not everyone loved Batistuta in the capital. One of them was Antonio Cassano, who, after landing in the capital only a few months after winning the title, did not have a warm relationship.
The assertion was made by the former striker himself in the biography “I tell everything”, written together with Pierluigi Pardo, where he quoted several episodes to show the differences and conflicts between the two: “In that team there were some players I hated. One was tall, rather handsome, attacking, Argentinian, with long hair. There were many flaws. Stingy, envious, critical. He said things behind his back, and smiled in front of his eyes. I couldn’t stand snobbish types. So I made him understand immediately that I was not interested in having a relationship with him.”
“One day in Trigoria I was in line at the bar, when he came and passed me. We would both get the macchiato. At that moment, I put my finger in his nose, swirled it in the milk as if my finger was a spoon. ‘What are you doing?’ – he tells me. “Either you drink it, or I drink it,” I answered. He made the phenomenon: ‘Now you drink’. And I: ‘Of course!’ I was much smarter than him. And I drank it, all in one gulp. I hadn’t put my finger in my nose, I just pretended. It didn’t take well. But I got my revenge in training. When I got the ball, I said: ‘Run old man, come get it, follow me’. He couldn’t take it anymore.” In 2003, after 63 appearances and 30 goals, Batistuta left Rome, on loan to Inter.