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There is anecdote regarding Roberto Mancini’s attempted persuasion of Roma midfielder Daniele de Rossi to join him at Manchester City.
“Do you want to end up like Totti?” Mancini is reported to have said to Roma’s vice-captain. “A great player who has never won anything?”
It is possible to imagine a more misjudged question, but you would have to think for some time. On the same issue, Glenn Hoddle ran Mancini close: “No, he’s not top drawer,” Hoddle said of Totti as part of Sky Sports’ Champions League coverage. “He’d have moved on if he was. Someone would’ve come and got him.” Those campaigning for Hoddle to be England’s next manager should feel even more foolish.
The misinterpretation of Francesco Totti’s raison d’etre by both is spectacular. Winning trophies is an important part of any player’s career, but for Totti the greatest significance lies in the method and the meaning, not the triumph. Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona all tried to tempt him from Rome, but its king was not for abdicating. For Totti, three points in the Stadio Olimpico outweighs three trophies anywhere else.
If Rome is the Eternal City, Totti is its eternal leader. Having made his debut as a 16-year-old in 1993, last month he signed a contract to play until the end of the coming season. One man’s playing career will span 28% of Roma’s history, and he’s already signed up for six years as a technical director. No wonder he says that Giallorossi No. 10 shirt feels like “a second skin”.
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