Batistuta's loyalty, although endearing, really did him a disservice.
He, and pre-injury Shearer were twinned in many ways - which made the '98 World Cup showdown all the more intriguing - but also their loyalty to clubs they were better than cost them countless silverware, goals and fonder eye in rememberance. Interestingly enough, both of them only have the one league title to show for illustrious levels of ability, and both were courted by United (alongside other top teams), only to stay where they were and become folk legends.
Batistuta was never the best striker in the world: Romario and then Ronaldo were in their primes during Bastituta's own prime, and then came Shevchenko - he wasn't the best forward in serie A, either beings as prime Baggio and then prime Del Piero plied their trades during his best years, too. He was, however, in the elite bracket alongside: the aforementioned two 9's; Shearer; Vieri; Raul; Weah, Suker and Stoichkov, all of whom any side that didn't have them would have been delighted with.
Batistuta was so highly regarded that the dream team charity game he played alongside Ronaldo is seen as one of the highlights of the decade:
In modern parlance. Batistuta would be snatched by a giant club and spend a career there and have a 1:1 goal ratio or something very close to it. It should be noted that he was scoring all those goals in Serie A whilst in a team some way off the ones challenging for the title: AC Milan, Juventus and Inter. As stated earlier, his goal tallies, with better service would have undoubtedly risen because his shooting, accuracy, intelligence and timing meant he made the best of service. which he proved with Argentina where his supporting cast were some level above what he had at Fiorentina.
His story is romantic in terms of neither selling out and being a god to the fans of Fiorentina, but also quite tragic in that football wrecked him (he has chronic pain in his legs and is said to struggle even walking moderate distances) and he has 'nothing' to show for it relative to what a striker of his standing usually does.
Irrespective; he's the kind of striker kids wished they could be like, but even in imitation, it's hard to shoot thunderbolts like he did, which gives an even greater sense of awe because his kind of shooting is seen a few times per generation or two, and you'll never forget it.
