Totti video named winner at 2017 Sportel Awards

The club-produced video, entitled ‘Stadium of Tears’, was selected as the Best Slow-Motion Video of the Year in this year’s awards, for its emotive and unforgettable depiction of the tearful scenes inside the Stadio Olimpico as Totti said goodbye to professional football after a 25-year career.

The video, which was viewed over 18 million times on social media, beat out 11 other nominees to take this year’s prize, which was announced at ceremony in Monaco on Tuesday evening.

Recent winners of the award include NBC Sports and Red Bull Media.

"On behalf of everyone at AS Roma, we are honoured to receive this prestigious award,” a club spokesman said at the ceremony. “All of us at Roma had the great pleasure of watching Francesco Totti in a Roma shirt for his entire career, and as a club we simply wanted to create a video that reflected everything he meant to the city of Rome and to football.

“This award is important to us as an organisation, because it is an indication that we are making progress in our aim to be both a football club and a multi-media company. But the incredible reaction this video has received around the world, and the fact over 18 million people have watched it, is really a testament to what a special player Francesco Totti was - and the unforgettable moments only sport can create.”

The video was recorded on 28 May 2017, on the day of Francesco Totti’s final game for his boyhood club - after an unforgettable 25-year career that saw him win Serie A, the World Cup and score over 300 goals. In just under two minutes, it encapsulates the outpouring of emotions – grief, gratitude, love – that fans felt on a unique evening.

The slow-motion footage records, in poignant detail, the emotions of all the fans and players in attendance as the 40-year-old Totti waved farewell to professional football – highlighting the sort of incredible moments football can deliver.

Watch the award-winning video in full below.