As a then-34-year-old Francesco Totti scored his penalty to give AS Roma a 2-0 win over Lazio in the final Derby della Capitale of the 2010-11 Serie A season, British commentator Richard Whittle famously exclaimed “the king of Rome is not dead”.
More than five years later, this sentiment is still true as Totti celebrates his 40th birthday in his 25th season in a Giallorossi shirt.
Totti began his football career at the age of eight. After being scouted by many top Italian clubs, his parents refused an offer put forward to him from AC Milan as they wanted him to remain in Rome.
He joined Roma at the age of 13 and three years later, he made his senior debut. Er Pupone scored his first senior goal in a Roma shirt in the 1994-95 season and he soon became a prominent member of the first team, aged 19.
His career began to thrive under manager Zdenek Zeman in 1997. Zeman helped Totti to mature, both mentally and physically, shifting him from his usual role as second striker to on the left-wing and allowing him to take on players with his pace to cut in and shoot with his deadly right foot. The following year, Totti became the Serie A’s youngest ever captain at the age of 22, succeeding Aldair as Roma captain.
READ MORE: Francesco Totti – 40 years of excellence
Under Fabio Capello, Totti would now be utilised as the team’s playmaker and their primary source of creativity. Totti, Vincenzo Montella and Gabriel Batistuta became a powerful trio in the Serie A, and in the 2000-01 season, the trio led Roma to their first Scudetto win since 1983.
To date, that is the only league title Roma have won in the Totti era, but he holds many records and other accolades. He has also won two Coppa Italia titles while lifting the World Cup trophy in Italy’s 2006 triumph.
Although the amount of trophies he has won is substantially less than other legends in the history of football, his allegance to Roma is what makes Totti special.
He is the epitome of loyalty.
Many of Europe’s biggest clubs have tried to tempt him with a move away from Trigoria but Totti declined. When asked if he had any regrets about his career, Totti gave the journalist a now-famous quote:
“No, none at all. I might have had the chance to win much more with other teams, but I am proud of what I’ve done with this jersey. No victory with another jersey would have given me the same emotions that this one has given me as captain.”
Rome is more than just a city to Totti just like Roma is more than just a club to him. It is difficult to imagine a man more synonymous with the city, and former coach Rudi Garcia once famously joked that it was “difficult to pick between Totti and Pope Francis in terms of popularity” in the Eternal City.
He is treated as royalty by Roma supporters, respected by Lazio’s faithful, and appreciated in every corner of the world – his loyalty meaning he is one of the very few players in the history of the game to wear the same team’s shirt throughout his entire career.
Life without Totti at Roma is something difficult to envisage; a Roman banner in the crowd reads “No Totti, No Party” on a weekly basis.
As his career winds down at the conclusion of the current season, his love affair with both the club and their fans continues – the chant “c’é solo un capitano” proving that there will never be another player like Francesco Totti.
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