From The Press Box: Richard Whittle

In the latest in our series discussing key topics with members of the media, renowned commentator Richard Whittle recounts his journey from the Curva Sud to one of the most iconic moments in Francesco Totti's career...

From his first steps in Rome as an English teacher in 1990, to being adopted by the Curva Sud and then eventually commentating on the team he had grown to love - we spoke to Whittle about all that and more.

We also found time to speak with him about the current issues surrounding the team, and what he thinks the new ownership will mean for the club.

Hi Richard, thanks for taking the time to speak with us. You split your time between Milan and Rome now, you were recently on holiday on Sardinia…. it really seems like you have fully embraced the Italian way of life!

“From the moment I arrived, basically, from the first day in Rome – which was back in February 1990, ahead of the World Cup that year – I felt like this was the place for me.

“I came with the idea of going to the World Cup, because I’d never been to one and I was a young guy back then too. My girlfriend had decided to come over to Rome because she wanted to teach English, and I basically just tagged along too!

“I think a lot of people have described visiting Rome as like love at first sight, and I think it was for me as well. The 1980s in Britain, they weren’t great times really, with Thatcherism and high unemployment and a country turning in on itself a bit. And if you liked football too, well, forget about it – you were immediately classified as some sort of hooligan.

"But then I came to this amazing city and it just took my breath away straight away. Mid-February and it is 18 degrees. Coffees outside. It was just a dream.

"From the Curva Sud to the commentary box... I'm not sure a commentator has done that before."

- Richard Whittle

“So it started with falling in love with Rome. Everything about it just seemed to suit the way I wanted to live my life: people seemed to be so easy-going, strolling around and not really doing anything yet presumably doing something. And they were so well dressed too. Coming from the UK, or Ireland, where the attitude was so different – the Romans taught me a lot about a different way to approach life, more laidback.

“And in the beginning, it was also the sensory side of it – walking along and you would see the monuments, or some beautiful architecture, or just a beautiful street that felt like it was out of a Fellini movie. You can’t believe you actually live here.

"And from those first steps, as soon as I fell in love with Rome it was only a matter of time before I fell in love with Roma too.”

How did that develop?

“It wasn’t long before I met some Romanisti – I was even teaching some of them English – and got into it that way. We are still friends now, some of us, we still text and meet up. I already knew a bit about Roma and Bruno Conti and Paulo Roberto Falcao from the World Cup in 1982, but it was a bit different by 1990.

"The team was playing at Stadio Flaminio, because the Olimpico was being renovated, and one of my first matches was the derby, the one when Rudi Voeller won it. And this was in the era where the colours and the displays at these games were incredible. I’d never seen anything like it back home, such passion and the flares and build-up before each game. I was just sold on it immediately.

“There were the colours as well, the Roman colours. They seemed to me to represent the city in a way that the other team didn’t, although obviously over time I learned a bit more about their history too. Early on I moved to Testaccio, so I was also in the heart of it with the Roma fans. I've always been Roma Sud.

"Back then you could turn up on the day and get your tickets. One of the games that stands out to me was the final day of that season, against Fiorentina. I was finally going to get to see the great Roberto Baggio, a player I’d fallen in love with from reading World Soccer and just seeing and hearing little bits about him – just his swagger and his flair and the ponytail and everything else. And then Franco Tancredi saved a penalty from him in that game!

“And that was it, at full-time some of those Roma players were going off to the World Cup. I remember Giuseppe Giannini just waving to the crowd, to the Curva, and then the fans just sort of hailing him like I imagined the people used to hail the Caesars back in the day. I just loved that aspect of it all.

"Roma back then were a good side but they weren’t going to win the title. They had some amazing players, and on their day were capable of beating anyone and playing some beautiful football, and I think that reflected something in me. I prefer teams like that, whereas the northern teams and the English teams of the time always seemed more rigid and clinical.

“I got to go to the World Cup too – I remember waiting at the obelix outside the Olimpico, hoping the guys who had promised they would bring the tickets would turn up. I saw Giannini score against the USA, I remember fans thinking I was American because I had a hooded sweatshirt on that day – at the time no Italians had something like that.

"My Italian wasn’t great at the time so there were some funny conversations about it – the Italians wanting it from me because they thought I was American. It was the first time I really understood the way Italy, or certainly the south, is a little more insular – that just some things hadn’t reached there in the way they had most other places in the world.”

And how did you support for Roma continue?

“The next season it was just crazy. I was in the Curva Sud for every Roma home game, you know, and I think a lot of people were like, ‘Who is this guy?’. And at the time there was quite a bit of underlying tension, because there were different ultras groups and there were power struggles and I think the group that had been the dominant one was slowly being overtaken by a more right-wing one. So things were changing a bit within the Curva.

“But obviously all of them are very protective of their Curva in general, so they were a bit suspicious of who I was and what I was doing. But I think they just realized I was as crazy about it as they were, and I was just this little Irish guy along with them. My then-girlfriend would go as well, and she was blonde and British, but we always felt safe and we really felt accepted and embraced.

“I’m trying to remember some of the games from that period. I remember the second leg of the UEFA Cup final against Inter; the fans just roared Roma on throughout, but we couldn’t quite overcome the first leg deficit. What stands out to me even now is the tears, the tears in the eyes of everyone in the Curva at full-time. There were tears welling in my eyes too, it was just so emotional. And then when Inter tried to do their lap of honour with the trophy they just couldn’t go near the Curva, the fans jeered them away.

“Back then, of course, all the games were on Sunday. In the early months it would be at 2pm, then I think from about November onwards it would be at 4pm. So there would be a ritual to it on Sunday, getting a panino and beer before the game – and then you would either go into Monday morning bouncing or feeling utterly deflated.”

How did you go from supporting to the team, to commentating on them?

“That was a slow progression really – I wouldn’t say it happened overnight. I had always had this desire to write about football, and at the time the fanzines were starting up and things like that – there was obviously Football Italia too – so I started doing little pieces, mostly about Roma, and pursuing that. I wouldn’t say it exploded for me, but organically things seemed to progress.

"But Sunday was still all about Roma – which stood me in good stead, because eventually I wrote some pieces going behind the scenes with ultras from both Roma and Lazio, actually. I wrote that for FourFourTwo in 2011, which was a big thing for me.

“The commentating came about because at the time I was back in London, but it had always been a wrench for me to leave Rome. And at the same time in Japan they were broadcasting games to keep up with Hidetoshi Nakata, who had obviously been at Roma but was at Parma at the time. So I jumped at the opportunity to come back and commentate in English on all these sort of games.

"It was basically for the Japanese market but the games came with English commentary, and over time they started developing it and transmitting it to more markets. So it all developed from there, I was quite fortunate that I began to commentate on a lot of Roma games.”

And now it must be been quite weird considering where you started because, without exaggerating too much, it’s probably fair to say you are the voice of Roma to a lot of the club’s international fans...

“I have to say, it's just a very emotional thing. When that happens, when someone mentions my commentaries, I just feel so fortunate. It's incredible to go from the Curva Sud to the commentary box. I don’t know too many commentators, if any, who have done that. It’s very different these days.

“I know at times, after people came to know I was a Roma fan, it caused some issues with the job – but thankfully in the main my employers saw it was a good thing for them and for Italian football, because you had a commentator with a lot of passion and a lot of insight, who perhaps brought something a little bit extra.

"And then, of course, I said ‘The King of Rome is not dead’ and that changed my world completely.”

The famous derby commentary, from 2013…

“That was a pretty crazy day. Beware the Ides of March, they say, and it was a ominous March day for that game. To me, Francesco Totti was the best, you know – he wasn’t just 'the best', he was George Best, who had been the best for me when I was growing up in Northern Ireland. And I had seen Totti from the start – I remember the penalty he won on his first derby appearance, that Giannini actually missed, and I remember everything else that followed. I knew this kid was going to be a superstar.

“But in the build-up to that match he had come in for a lot of criticism, from Roma fans too, saying that he was past it, that it was better for him to step aside and whatever else. And for a Roman like Totti, a Roma fan and whatever else, that’s just a dagger to the heart. So it was a tough derby for him to go into. And then, as a commentator, for the game itself you are above the action a little bit, you are observing. But you could feel it all in the air… and Totti scores that free-kick and all the fans go wild.

“And then, of course, there is the penalty. People have asked me if I had something planned, if I had it planned, but I didn’t – it was just spontaneous. It came from within, what I was feeling. Because it really was to me what fitted the moment, especially because Totti ran to the Curva Sud afterwards with his arms open.

"Hours earlier some of those fans had been saying he was finished, and then here he was, the Emperor winning over the populace again. And the game was over because of the goal too, so for me it was a decisive moment and I just said it: ‘The King of Rome is not dead’.

“I have to be truthful, I didn’t really think much of it at the time. I remember my co-commentator being a bit quiet. But then when I left the stadium my phone started going off constantly.”

What was it like, everything that followed after you uttered that phrase?

“I had friends straight away, sending me messages amazed about what I had said. ‘Sei un mito!’ ‘Uno di noi!’ They were so proud, so happy. It was all over social media too, it just went everywhere – I had to turn my phone off in the end.

“The next day I had people I hadn’t spoken to for years getting in touch. And then all the radio stations got in touch, wanted me to come on and talk about it and say the line again. I must have repeated it on all of the ones in Rome. I was just overcome by it all, because it was in Italy and around the world too. I would go to restaurants and friends would tell the owner I was the guy who said ‘the King of Rome is not dead’, and I’d say it for them and we’d get a discount, or a free round of limoncello, or whatever.

“And then Francesco’s people got in touch with me, because they were producing a t-shirt, and those t-shirts were going to be sold everywhere. On the final game of the season, I was at the stadium, and we got to meet after the match. And I’m much older than him, but he tweaked my cheek in that way Romans do and gave me a knowing look. It was a wonderful moment, that whole thing.”

It must be strange to think you are part of his, and indeed Roma’s, history as a result…

“It’s an amazing feeling, to think back from where I came from – as a young guy arriving in the city at Largo di Torre Argentina in 1990 thinking, ‘I love this city, I never want to leave’ to being a middle-aged man, still with a grin on his face, still madly in love with Rome and Roma. It’s been an incredible journey.

“Whatever happens now, with international broadcasting rights and whatever, it’s something that is always going to live with me for the rest of my life. It’s just incredible. It’s just cemented my relationship with Rome and Roma even more.”

What would your advice be to the new owners then, given all you know about the club?

“The starting point should be with the local fans. The ones who are crying in the evening after losing, or walking into work with a spring in their step after the team has won.

“The world is changing, of course, but at the same time Roma is unique – and fans throughout Italy would agree with that. Roma fans are up there with anyone for their passion. For me, they are the most passionate of all – and they do feel it is their club. The owner is the custodian, but it really belongs to the fans. So if they can get that feeling with the fans, that they are involved and embraced in some way, then I think that is a good start for them. To then push their vision for Roma and really mean it.

“Roma fans are either up in the lights or down in the stalls – there is no middle ground. But they have always stuck with the team, even during some really terrible times. And there have been some. But now we have a new chapter. It’s an opportunity to build a new, young team – to keep some of the experienced players, but to really build a new team and keep some of the best young players as the team used to do in the past.

“We can’t afford to be slipping back, we need to keep ahead of Napoli and AC Milan and look to push on and get back above Lazio. Atalanta are going to be hanging around, so you have to be prepared for that – but that’s good for Serie A, that competition. There used to be the ‘seven sisters’ of Serie A and it would be great to have that again.

“There have been so many improvements and developments made off the pitch in recent years, it’s time to match that on the pitch as well.

“You would say that the club has always had a great bond with fans in the past – Franco Sensi, Dino Viola… they were all Romans and they were in touch with the feeling around the club. I think perhaps with the previous owners, without knowing exactly if that was the intention, there was the sense they were moving away from that romano nature, to become more international. And I think the Curva Sud fans took that on a bit, because they were there through thick and thin and yet it didn’t feel as much like their club any more.

“So embracing them would be a starting point. Obviously the international market is incredibly important too, but I think you can achieve that while retaining the sense of Romanismo.”

What are your thoughts going into this season?

“Well it’s a second season for Paulo Fonseca, so I think he will have learned a lot from his first year and his first experience in Italian football. I think he was caught out on a few occasions last season – I’m thinking immediately of the games against Sassuolo [away] and Bologna [home] – where he fell into the trap that had been set for him. So I think he will have learned from that.

“We were left chasing a lot of games, all season really. So if we can have fewer of those it will be better for him, and better for the players and their confidence. So he has to settle on his style, the approach he wants to take. I think if he continues to push for this aggressive, proactive style that there was at times last season then the team will continue to be quite open, so he might change that slightly.

“And then after that, it will depend a lot on the players he has available to him. What happens in the transfer market, particularly with some of the key players, will send out a message I think about the way the season will go.”

And finally, then, given you have now been watching Roma for 30 years – who are some of the players that stand out in your mind throughout that period? Beyond Totti, of course…

“Yes, he would be the No. 1, naturally, he always will be. Before him there was Giannini too, who I loved – he had the flowing hair, the swagger and the style that I just found so mesmerising.

“And then there have been so many others. You think of that Scudetto team, where there was Cafu on one side – but there was also Vincent Candela, who was just an incredibly gifted and swashbuckling full-back on the other too.

“More recently there was Miralem Pjanic, who I think was the sort of midfielder that the club had not had for a while. He had such a great feel for the ball and moved it so well, he was a pleasure to watch. I liked Radja Nainggolan and Strootman too.

“For me, that Rudi Garcia season in 2013-14 always stands out to me – I think that team played some brilliant football. Juventus had to do something extraordinary to win the league that season, and unfortunately for us they did. But that Roma team was amazing to watch, with Gervinho scampering forward. That season was memorable to me.”

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Click here to read previous entries in the 'Press Box' series.