Francesco Totti

Roma legend severs ties with Serie A club

- Paddy Agnew

To the surprise of many, Roma icon Francesco Totti has broken up with his beloved club. In mid-June, the 42-year-old announced he was resigning his director’s role and severing all connections.

When Totti ended his playing career two years ago on an emotional night in Rome, it had been presumed that he would continue to work with Roma in some sort of “management” role. Not so, it seems.

In a press conference at the Italian Olympic Committee headquarters in Rome, Totti cut a remarkable figure as he answered questions for 90 minutes. Seated under the imposing mural The Apotheosis Of Fascism, a 1928 homage to Benito Mussolini, he might have passed for the last King of Rome, despondently announcing his abdication. After all, Roma has been his whole life, starting as a 12-year-old in 1989 and playing out his entire career with the club.

Totti opened his press conference with words of almost operatic drama, saying: “At 12.41, on today, June 17th, I sent an email to the Roma CEO, Guido Fienga, in which I wrote unthinkable words, handing in my resignation from Roma. I would rather have died...”

It would seem that Totti wanted to make a point, accusing James Pallotta, the club’s US co-owner and financial tycoon, of having failed to understand the ethos of the club.

“I never imagined it would get to this,” he went on. “And it’s not my fault that I have taken this decision. I never had a chance, I was never involved in the technical side of the team.