AS Roma icon Francesco Totti has as soon as once more opened up about his well-known resolution to reject a transfer to Actual Madrid on the peak of his powers, considered one of soccer’s most romantic ‘what if’ moments.
Talking within the newly launched documentary “Eroici! 100 Years of Ardour and Sporting Tales” produced by Corriere dello Sport, the legendary Italian playmaker mirrored on the extreme love he held for Roma, the membership the place he spent his whole profession, and why no quantity of silverware or status may lure him away from the Stadio Olimpico.
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“Everybody is aware of that Roma’s followers are completely different from another fan base in Italy or Europe,” Totti mentioned.
“I skilled one thing distinctive right here in Rome. I used to be topped on this metropolis, and that was potential due to the followers. They gave me a lot.”
Why he mentioned no to Actual Madrid?
Totti then acknowledged simply how shut he was to becoming a member of Actual Madrid, a membership synonymous with glamour, Champions League glory, and world superstardom.
“Throughout my profession, I had the possibility to play for different groups, each in Italy and overseas. Overseas, particularly Actual Madrid, the place a switch was very, very shut.”
Francesco Totti snubbed Actual Madrid for AS Roma. (Photograph by Emilio Andreoli/Getty Pictures)
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Nevertheless, the person often called El Capitano selected otherwise not due to worry or indecision, however due to one thing deeper.
“It wasn’t a query of weak spot,” he clarified. “It was a query of affection. I selected my coronary heart. I selected my life, which I’ve at all times devoted to Roma, to the love I felt for these colors, for this shirt.”
His phrases will resonate with followers throughout generations, particularly in at present’s soccer panorama the place loyalty has typically taken a again seat to ambition.
Totti, who spent 25 years in Roma’s first group, turned down the best membership in world soccer at a time when many would have seen it as an apparent step ahead.
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Actual Madrid, for his or her half, had been genuinely desirous about bringing Totti to the Santiago Bernabeu.
The membership noticed him as the subsequent Galactico, a participant who may observe within the footsteps of Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, and Ronaldo. However the Italian by no means crossed that line, and in doing so, cemented his place as considered one of soccer’s uncommon one-club icons.
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