Francesco Totti is a true legend of Italian soccer. After spending 25 seasons in Italian Serie A with AS Roma and representing Italy 58 times at the senior level, there is no doubt that Totti is set to go down as one of the Italian soccer players of all time. The fact that he played for Roma throughout his entire professional career is definitely something to be respected, especially in this day and age of constant transfers and team changes. Throughout his career with Roma, Totti scored a total of 316 goals in all competitions, which ranks him as the fifth highest scoring Italian of all time. Still, one of the reasons that he is so beloved in Rome and by the soccer community definitely has to do with Totti’s longevity.
#1 Totti Became the Youngest Ever Club Captain for Italian Serie A
Although Francesco Totti made his debut for AS Roma in 1993 at the age of 16, the first few years of his career weren’t all that extraordinary and he ended up narrowly missing out on a chance to represent his country at the 1998 World Cup. Nonetheless, Totti eventually began to grow into more of a leadership role, which culminated in Roma naming him the team’s captain in October 1998. Totti was only 22 years old at the time, making him the youngest ever captain of a Serie A team, and he continued to captain his team for nearly 20 years until he finally hung up his boots in 2017. It seems that being named captain helped Totti to push his game to the next level, and he was eventually rewarded for his improved performances by being named the Serie A Young Player of the Year for the 1997/1998 season.
#2 Totti Played with Italy and Won the World Cup 2006
After missing out on the 1998 World Cup, Totti was expected to be Italy’s star player at the 2002 World Cup. Things didn’t quite work out as planned, and neither Totti nor Italy performed all that well in 2002. However, Totti got a chance to redeem himself when he was named in manager Marcelo Lippi’s squad for the 2006 World Cup. Despite suffering a serious leg fracture and ligament damage in February 2006 and being sidelined for more than three months leading up to the World Cup, Totti still ended up playing in all seven of Italy’s games during the tournament. Italy eventually went on to win the 2006 World Cup, and Totti finished the tournament with the joint-highest number of assists and was named in the World Cup’s All-Star Team.
#3 Totti Became the Oldest Scorer in the History of the UEFA Champions League
Totti continued to break records throughout his amazing Serie A career, and on September 30, 2014, he set yet another record that still stands to this day. In a Champions League group stage game against Manchester City, Totti scored the equalizing goal to become the oldest ever person to score a goal during the UEFA Champions League. The goal also happened to be his 300th career goal. However, he wasn’t quite done yet and, on October 25 of the same year, he scored another goal against CSKA Moscow to extend his record of being the Champions League’s oldest goal scorer at the age of 38 years and 59 days.
The Legend – Francesco Totti
After 25 record breaking seasons at AS Roma, Totti has most definitely cemented his place in the pantheon of Italian sports legends. Unfortunately, his final two seasons in Rome were hampered by injuries, which eventually led him to announce his decision to retire at the end of the 2016/2017. However, true to form, Totti continued to break new ground even with his retirement as it was also announced at the same time that he had signed a six year contract to be Roma’s technical director. As technical director, Totti will still be responsible for helping Roma to succeed on the field, albeit in a completely different manner. Although it is still too early to tell whether he will be successful in his new position, one thing is for sure and that’s that Francesco Totti is a true Italian legend.
