There is a certain segment that simply consider Batistuta immense, no questions asked.
I've always found that slightly problematic if "immense" means Fat Ron territory.
Similar to how certain people think Zidane is easily on par with Cruyff or that calibre of player. The immediate reaction is "hang on now, he was certainly brilliant but let's not get carried away here..."
Batistuta is unclear to me in an all-time setting. He had "immense" qualities, no question about it, but he arguably didn't leave a mark nobody can possibly question.
Aye, he's quite tough to assess really, in terms of skill set as well as CV. With his fearsome long-range shooting he was obviously capable of scoring from pretty much anywhere, and he racked up highly impressive goal tallies even when he was playing in shite teams. However you wouldn't quite class him in that rarefied category with the likes of Luis Ronaldo and Eusebio who are liable to destroy elite defences pretty much by themselves on a regular basis. Partly due to his roving style, and partly due to his inconsistent touch*, he wasn't really a classic line leader either.
There's sufficient gaps in his overall CV that you'd have to conclude that he falls short of that tier of player who you would back as being highly likely to score against any level of opposition most of the time. But then you look at that grouping of players and so many of them enjoyed vastly more favourable circumstances than Batistuta. The likes of Gerd Muller, Eusebio, Pele and Messi spent their entire peak at a single, exceptionally strong club, in all but Messi's case in their native country. Muller and Pele played in some of the strongest national team squads ever, and along with Eusebio played with several of their most prominent club teammates for the national team. We've seen how Messi's goalscoring tails off at the business end of tournaments in less familiar, less favourable setups for Argentina. Puskas played for one of the most overwhelmingly strong national teams ever and in arguably the first ever globalised, Galactico team for Real Madrid. C. Ronaldo played for arguably Utd's greatest ever team and an exceptional Real team, both built around him and increasingly in the era of absurd concentration of talent in the top cluster of clubs.
Luis Ronaldo and Romario are arguably more atypical of the undisputed great goalscorers in that they moved club more frequently, often playing for less dominant teams, and still look top notch in an all-time sense.
Batistuta bears some similarites with van Nistelrooy imo, in that he was unfortunate to play in some relatively lacklustre teams at his peak, generally turned in a superb level of performance anyway, and then ratcheted up a few levels and played a pivotal role in winning trophies when he had a decent platform (Batistuta winning the Scudetto with Roma and the Copa America with Argentina, and Ruud winning the PL in the strong Utd team when he first joined, and then getting back to winning major honours after moving to Real Madrid).
You'd objectively have to rank him below the undisputed top dogs, but it's very tough to decide how close to that grouping he gets as his circumstances were quite different. A lot of it comes down to the eye test and one's perceptions having lived through the era rather than just poring over their records on Wiki, and he scores highly in that regard for me.
* Raees phrased it nicely in an old draft match:
The only thing I dislike about Batistuta was he was inconsistent in a technical sense, one minute he can look so technically accomplished and another moment he looks like Andy Carroll.. but it sort of added to his mystique and unpredictability, defenders never felt comfortable around him.
