Gabriel Batistuta is the all time leading scorer for the Argentinean national soccer team and it was on this day in soccer history in 1998 that the striker notched a hat-trick against Jamaica in Paris to become the first player to score a hat-trick in two different FIFA World Cups.

With the hat-trick, Batigol become the 4th player to score two hat-tricks at the FIFA World Cup, along with Sándor Kocsis, Just Fontaine, and Gerd Müller and the first to score a hat trick in 2 different FIFA World Cups

Batistuta scored his first FIFA World Cup hat-trick four years early to the day when he put three past Greece at Foxboro Stadium.  Argentina went on to win that match 4-0 with Diego Maradona scoring the team’s other goal. 

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The Paris hat-trick came after Ariel Ortega had given Argentina a 2 goal advantage and with the game Batistuta added to the Reggae Boyz  misery knocking in goals in the 72nd, 80th and 82nd minutes to make the affair into a blow out.

Soccer Birthdays

1955 – Michel Platini, French footballer
1976 – Nigel Lappin, Australian footballer
1978 – Cristiano Lupatelli, Italian footballer
1978 – Dejan Ognjanović, Montenegrin football player
1987 – Sebastian Prödl, Austrian footballer

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