BUENOS AIRES. May 4 (Reuters): Argentina striker Gabriel Batistuta is set to rival Brazil's living legend Ronaldo as the star of the World Cup finals in France in summer.

If he gets a game, that is.

The 29-year-old has netted 38 goals in 59 games for Argentina more than any other player including the legendary Diego Maradona. He is such a prolific scorer for his Serie A side Fiorentina in Italy that grateful Florentines have put up a statue of him as well as asked him to run for mayor.

But coach Daniel Passarella left him out of the team for many of Argentina's qualifying matches.

To the dismay of supporters. Passarella favoured young Parama striker Hernan Crespo. He said that Batistuta and Crespo were too similar to be able to work together, and called up Valencia's Claudio Lopez to feed Crespo.

Batistuta's lukewarm relations with Passarella goes back to his early days at River Plate, where Passarella was a highly successful coach. Argentina's 1978 World Cup winning captain generally kept the young striker on the substitutes' bench and eventually allowed him to be sold to Boca Juniors in 1991.

The problems are Batistuta's style of marksmanship does not easily fit into the passing game Passarella likes his teams to play. The Argentina national side does not allow him to hover near the area awaiting the sort of long balls his Fiorentina teammates lob to him.

Nonetheless. Passarella has confirmed Batistuta will be in the squad for France, and he played in the morale-boosting wins over Ireland and Brazil this April, scoring in the first and putting one over rival Ronaldo in the latter.

Batistuta became a star with Boca, and was a almost immediately called up for the national side by then coach Alfio Basile. Fiorentina bought him for 2.3 million dollars after he scored six goals in the 1991 Copa America in Chile.