Francesco Totti returns to talk about his tumultuous senior year Rome. The former Giallorossi captain was Alessandro Cattelan’s guest on the Supernova podcast, where he retraced the memories and regrets he has never completely forgotten: “At the start of the year they told me that I would decide when to stop, but then as the end of the season approached, they told me that this would be my last derby”.
“Here in Italy, once you reach 36 or 37, people think you can’t stand up anymore,” continued Totti, “a time where I wasn’t in good shape, not physically but with the context around me, it seemed like I was playing against everything. Every time it seemed like I was doing something more. Maybe it was the preparation or the team or even my skills, but I always turned the result around.”
An inevitable joke, remembering the past, was also about the national team, which had just achieved a 2-0 victory in Moldova but was held back by its fans: “Our generation was too strong, in Serie A every team had at least one or two champions, even the weakest team”, recalled Totti, “in the national team when we met there was a close friendship, even if on the pitch a week before you were opponents. Then by chance you would meet again in Coverciano and the jokes and teasing would immediately begin. Of course when it stopped, the most missing was dressing room.”
Then at VAR he attacked: “It’s a waste of time. You score a goal and you don’t know if it’s valid, you wait five minutes… meanwhile you drink an alcoholic drink and they’re still checking. Inzaghi with VAR would have scored 50 goals and not 250, at least half of them he scored with his head in front”, said Totti with a smile.
