Totti: The most misunderstood player of a generation

He’s played for Roma for 20 years, scoring 300 goals, but Francesco Totti still doesn’t get the respect he deserves on British shores. It’s time to show some love before it’s too late…

“He’s a little tw*t, that Totti. I can’t see what all the fuss is about.” It’s certainly not the worst thing Ron Atkinson ever said, but it must be the laziest. That said, Big Ron’s mind was probably elsewhere, given this priceless morsel at the 2002 World Cup was followed by: “Are there any sandwiches? I’m starving.”

Yet the former Manchester United and Aston Villa manager is far from alone in English football’s mistrust of Francesco Totti. Fast-forward almost a decade and Terry Venables, Glenn Hoddle and Graeme Souness – who displays his anti-Totti badge with the unflinching pride of a Victoria Cross recipient – combined to damn the Roma forward with the faintest of praise after scoring the winner in a 2010 Champions League group game against Bayern Munich.

“He’s never been accused of being a workaholic,” smirked Souness. “Yeah he’s got talent, but you know my thoughts on him.”

Hoddle took up the baton. “No, he’s not top drawer; he’d have moved on if he was. Someone would’ve come and got him.”

“Glenn’s right,” concluded Venables, “he has been a luxury.”

The wider British football public has long made snap judgements on Totti, largely based on little more than a handful of performances – a Champions League quarter-final here, a World Cup game there. He’s a riddle we can’t be bothered to untangle. Four major honours – a Serie A title, two Coppas Italia and one World Cup – at which we scoff.

It comes down to a lack of knowledge. All most Brits know about the 39-year-old Totti is his extreme longevity and unbroken 26 years at Roma since joining as a 13-year-old in 1989. He has never left his boyhood club – we’re talking about a seventh generation Roman here – and because of this he’s never got beyond the last eight of the Champions League or finished higher than fifth in the Ballon d’Or voting.

On the continent, he’s revered as a paragon of loyalty. When Roma played Barcelona in a pre-season friendly, Lionel Messi demanded both Totti’s shirt and a picture, uploading the snap to Instagram with the caption: “A great! What a phenomenon!!” It got 1.8 million likes.

Cold, hard statistics back up the continental belief over the British. Only Silvio Piola (in a bygone, goal-hanging era) has scored more Serie A goals than Totti. He is a five-time Italian footballer of the year. He won the 2007 European Golden Boot as the top marksman across the continent. He’s won the World Cup.

Totti will be nearly 40 at the end of the season. As Il Re di Roma (The King of Rome) approaches what may be his curtain call, FFT asks the coaches, former team-mates and fans why this Gladiator of European football is so revered abroad, yet so mistrusted and misunderstood here.

"Why does Totti matter? What makes him tick? How has he endured so long in the Eternal City? Can he score the 30 goals he needs to overhaul Piola’s all-time Serie A goalscoring record?"

- FourFourTwo Magazine

“Go on, put the boy on.” Vujadin Boskov turned his gaze from Sinisa Mihajlovic, the busy midfielder offering his coach substitute advice, to a blond 16-year-old sat wide-eyed on the Roma bench a few seats away. The Giallorossi were 2-0 up with five minutes to go against Brescia, a disappointing season all-but over in late March 1993.

“Warm up, so you can go on straight away,” said Boskov to the boy, sat next to promising 22-year-old striker Roberto Muzzi, yet he did nothing.

“Look,” huffed Muzzi, “he’s talking to you, off you go.”

Later, the youngster recalled what happened next. “I went out, warmed up for 10 seconds, and went on. I only touched the ball a couple of times, but I was too excited and too happy.”

Francesco Totti had achieved a childhood dream – something he’s gone on to do more than 750 times since – play for Roma’s first team.

“He stood out straight away. Everything seemed so easy for him. What he’s done for Italian football cannot be underestimated. He’s the best we’ve had.”

- Giuseppe Giannini

The above article is a short extract from FourFourTwo's magazine cover feature on Francesco Totti. To read the full feature, click here to download the magazine for IOS devices or click here to download a PDF page turner.