Francesco Totti

Francesco Totti (born September 27 1976 in Rome) is an Italian football player, who currently plays for AS Roma in Serie A and the Italian national team. Totti creates as well as scores goals - not least from free kicks - Francesco Totti can operate from a variety of attacking positions but it is in the free role behind the strikers that his skill and technique are best showcased. Totti is a creative attacker or midfielder that shows perfect vision and not only is he a fantastic athlete but he is renowned for his superb technique and knowledge of the game. Although Totti regularly scores tremendous goals he is often recognised with his ability to pass the ball onto the foot of anyone on the football pitch, this combined with his excellent reading of the game creates one of the most popular and debatedly best player of this generation.

Childhood

Totti was born in Rome, in the Porta Metronia city neighbourhood. His parents are Enzo and Fiorella Totti. Unlike other children his age who preferred to watch cartoons, Totti was always more interested in watching football matches instead. Totti constantly played football with older boys. He refused a big deal from A.C. Milan while waiting for a deal from his favourite club AS Roma, and finally joined the AS Roma junior team in 1989.

National team

Very talented as a teenager, Totti scored in Italy's 4-1 defeat by Spain in the final of the UEFA European Under-18 Championship in July 1995. In the final of the Under-21 competition in 1996, Totti opened the scoring in a 1-1 draw against the Spanish before triumphing on penalties.

Totti made his senior Azzurri debut in the qualifying victory against Switzerland on 10 October 1998. He played in the finals tournament and scored against Romania and Belgium and played in the final; losing to France. Although he was on the losing side, Totti was named Man of the Match in the final. More disappointment followed at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, with Totti failing to make a significant impact and then being sent off as Italy controversially lost to the South Korea in the second round, when he received a second yellow card for alleged penalty area diving by the referee Byron Moreno.

At , Totti garnered negative media attention when he spat at Christian Poulsen, a midfielder for Denmark, an incident for which the Danes now call him Snotti. Totti was subsequently banned until the semi-finals, but did not play in the tournament again, as Italy failed to qualify for the next round. In defense of Totti, Poulsen has developed a reputation for a dirty player. The Danish defender was described as 'a coward' by A.C. Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti during the 05-06 season^*, Sporting Life.

Totti's participation in the 2006 FIFA World Cup was put at risk by the broken ankle he suffered a few months before the tournament. He recovered in time to join the national team, although he was not yet in his best shape. During the match with Australia, he scored from a controversial penalty during stoppage time in the second half to give Italy a 1-0 victory. This propelled Italy into the quarter finals. After the goal, he celebrated by sucking on his thumb in honor of his young son. Italy then went on to face Ukraine, a match in which Totti provided a valuable assist to striker Luca Toni. Italy went on to win the match 3-0 and moved on to the semifinals to face Germany. Totti started the game against Germany as well, and stayed on for 120 minutes, helping Italy defeat the Germans 2-0 in a sensational ending to the game. The Italians went on to face the French team in the finals. The score remained 1-1 through extra-time, after which the Italians won by a penalty shootout. Totti is currently considering whether or not to continue playing for the national team after he had made it clear that his intention was to retire after the World Cup. When holding the world cup, he said that he was 50-50, if to retire, or to stay in international play.

Club

Francesco Totti was just 16 when he made his first appearance for AS Roma in a 2-0 away victory at Brescia on March 28, 1993. He scored four goals in twenty one outings in 1994/95 and over the ensuing seasons became a team regular. He was named Italy's Player of the Year in 2000 and in 2003. The following season (2000/1) he helped AS Roma secure their first league title since 1983, having scored thirteen Serie A goals. In the 2001/02 campaign Roma finished runners-up to Juventus, but Totti returned with a then personal-best of fourteen goals during the 2002/3 season.

2003/04: Playing in a more advanced role, Totti hit a career-high twenty goals as Roma finished second in Serie A behind A.C. Milan.
2004/05: A very disappointing season, the only bright side of which was Roma finishing second in the Italian Cup and thus qualifying for the UEFA Cup. In the 2004-05 season Roma had to replace four coaches. Despite all the problems, Totti scored twelve goals, and helped Vincenzo Montella score 21 with numerous assists.
2005/06: A strange season for A.S Roma and Totti. Il Capitano picked up his first long time absence from Roma on February 19th, 2006, when he suffered an unfortunate ankle break. Totti only managed to return to play as a sub in the last couple of a games of the season. As in the 2004/05 season, A.S Roma came in second in the Italian Cup (again trailing to Inter Milan). In the Serie A they finished 5th, and only qualified for the UEFA Cup for the second season in a row. On a more positive note, the team won eleven consecutive victories, setting a new Serie A record. Ironically, the last match was won against rivals S.S Lazio. Coach Luciano Spalletti turned the team's line up from a defensive one to an attacking one (despite playing without strikers for most of the season, and for the last 10 or so games playing without even Totti), and the team moved from fifteenth to fifth by the end of the season. The team was spectacular in mid-season, with Totti scoring fifteen goals; an impressive number for a midfielder. He also provided a lot of assists.

Personal life

Totti is married to Ilary Blasi, a former model, considered one of the most beautiful celebrities in Italy, who currently works as commentator and host on several RAI TV programmes. The couple had their first baby, named Cristian, on November 6, 2005.

Totti also runs a Football school, named Number Ten, and has his own Motor bikes team called "Totti Top Sport".

His best friend is his brother, Riccardo. However, Totti always says that his brother was the better player when they were kids, but he was unlucky on his way. Riccardo now is Totti's agent.

Totti has had many hardships with people during his sporting career. One of those people is Lazio's captain Paolo Di Canio, who exploits the age-old rivalry between Lazio and Roma and always insults Totti, and their derby match twice every season.

He also had a bad relationship with his previous coach Fabio Capello, who is currently coach of Real Madrid. Totti accused Capello of being a traitor for leaving Roma suddenly without a warning, and left the Roman team in a very bad shape which had them almost relegated to the second division in 2004-2005 season. He even called him once an "un-true man", while praised his current coach Luciano Spalletti defining him "a real man", and pointing that he will never play for Fabio Capello again. This famous problem started on Capello's last days with Roma: according to Totti, his behaviour to most of the players changed, and once advised the younger players not take Totti as their role model player, but to take Brazilian Emerson as an idol for his hard work. Several months later, Capello, Emerson and Frenchmen Jonathan Zebina all left AS Roma for rivals Juventus suddenly. As of today, Totti and the Roma fans still treat those three men as traitors who left the club.

Additional information

A goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, Totti allowed two books to be published containing jokes made at his expense to raise money for the children's charity. The book was a hit and a bestseller for many months. He was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.

Totti's idol player in his childhood was Roma's ex-captain Giuseppe Giannini, who he considers as his elder brother: he always wished to just shake hands with Giannini, and was one of his biggest fans. Several years after, Totti himself had the opportunity to play alongside Giannini on the pitch in the AS Roma kit.

Totti is famous for his chipping technique, called in Italian il cucchiaio (in English, "spoon"). He has scored many beautiful goals using this technique. His famous early goals using this technique was in a shoot-out against Netherlands in the semi-final when he scored against Netherlands' keeper Edwin van der Sar, he also scored a second famous one two years later against Lazio in the derby, which ended 5-1 to the Romans at the time they played their best football. Also notable was Totti's slalom against Inter in fall 2005, finished by a spectacular chip that left the Inter goalkeeper helpless.

In December 2005, Totti announced that he is 90% sure that he will retire from international football after the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, explaining that he wants to focus more on his club AS Roma.

In 19 February 2006, while playing in the Italian Championship against Empoli F.C., he suffered a leg injury fracturing his left fibula and severing the interconnecting ligaments with the malleolus. He was operated the same night by Prof. Mariani, a renowned Italian orthopedic surgeon. He returned from his injury on 11 May 2006 as a substitute in Roma's 3-1 defeat against Inter Milan in the Coppa Italia.

On 26 June 2006, Totti scored for Italy against Australia in the 2006 FIFA World Cup second round match through a controversial injury time penalty awarded to Italy. This placed Italy in the quarter-finals of the tournament to play against Ukraine.

The Azzurri team won the FIFA World Cup 2006. Totti was also selected as one of the 23 players to be the Mastercard All Star Team.

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