Francesco Totti

Francesco Totti, Ufficiale OMRI,^[1] (born 27 September 1976) is an Italian footballerwho is the captain of Serie A club Roma. His primary position is that of atrequartista, though he has also been successfully utilized as a lone striker. Totti has spent his entire career at Roma, is the number-one goalscorer and the most capped player in the club's history. He is considered as one of the finest players of his generation,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} and also Roma's greatest player ever.^[8][9]

A 2006 World Cup winner and Euro 2000 finalist, Totti was selected in the All-Star team for both tournaments. He has won many individual awards, including a record five Italian Footballer of the Year awards and two Serie A Footballer of the Yearawards.^[10] He was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé as a part of FIFA's centenary celebrations.^[11] In 2011, Totti has been recognized by IFFHS as the most popular footballer in Europe.^[12]

Often referred to as Il Bimbo d'Oro (The Golden Boy), Il Re di Roma (The King of Rome), Er Pupone (The Big Baby), and Il Gladiatore (The Gladiator) by the Italian sports media, Totti is currently the top active Serie A goalscorer and third all-time in league history with 224 goals.

Contents   [hide]  1 Early career 2 Club career 2.1 Early seasons 2.2 Zeman's first spell 2.3 Capello and the Scudetto 2001 2.4 As a striker with Spalletti 2.5 Ranieri era 2.6 Montella's reign 2.7 Back to a playmaker with Enrique 2.8 Zeman's second spell 3 International career 3.1 Euro 2000 3.2 2002 World Cup 3.3 Euro 2004 3.4 2006 World Cup 3.5 Retirement 4 Goal celebrations 5 Personal life 6 Career statistics 6.1 Club career 6.2 Competition statistics 6.3 International career 6.4 International goals 6.5 Career totals 7 Honours 7.1 Club 7.2 International 7.3 Individual 7.4 Records 7.5 Orders 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

[edit]Early career

Totti was born in Rome, to parents Lorenzo and Fiorella Totti. He was raised in Porta Metronia neighbourhood. He idolized ex-Roma captain Giuseppe Giannini and regularly played football with older boys. Totti began to play youth team football at the age of 8, with Fortitudo, then he joined Smit Trastevere and Lodigiani. After coming to the attention of scouts, his mother refused a lucrative offer fromAC Milan to remain in his hometown,^[13] and he joined the Roma youth squad in 1989.

[edit]Club career

[edit]Early seasons

After three years on the youth team, Totti made his first appearance for Roma's senior side at the age of sixteen, when coach Vujadin Boškov let him play in the 2–0 away victory against Brescia on 28 March 1993. In the following season under Carlo Mazzone, Totti began to play more games and scored his first goal on 4 September 1994 in a 1–1 draw against Foggia. By 1995, Totti had become a regular in Roma's starting line-up and scored 16 goals in the next three seasons. He always publicly praised Mazzone for helping him become a good footballer.^[14] After Mazzone left Roma, Totti also worked with Carlos Bianchi and a short-spell with a club legendary coach Nils Liedholm.

[edit]Zeman's first spell

When Zdeněk Zeman took control of the squad in the 1997–98 season, the coach played with an offensive 4–3–3 formation, in which Totti was the left winger. At the age of 21, Totti assumed the team captaincy in 1998 and began to gain recognition as a club symbol. He scored 30 goals during Zeman's two-year managerial stint. Though Totti was not called up for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, he was named the Serie A Young Footballer of the Year in the 1998–99 season.

[edit]Capello and the Scudetto 2001

Decal of Totti alongside the Scudettoshield, displayed on a house in Rome.

By the 2000–01 campaign, Roma, then helmed by Fabio Capello, was building a competitive team around Totti, who had started to play as trequartista to take advantage of his passing skills. He scored thirteen goals in the campaign. On 17 June 2001, he won Scudetto, and scored one goal in a 3–0 Supercoppa Italiana victory against Fiorentina.

Totti was named the Italian Footballer of the Year for 2000 and 2001. He received his firstBallon d'Or nomination in 2000, finishing fourteenth in the voting and fifth the following year.^[15] He had also become a widely recognized idol of the supporters, who were able to identify with Totti's background as a lifelong Roma supporter and Rome native and also his prowess on the pitch.

In the following seasons, Totti played as second striker as part of a 3–5–2 formation and scored a career-high twenty goals in the 2003–04 season as Roma finished runners-up toMilan in the Scudetto race. He also won his second consecutive Italian Footballer of the Year award.

Despite a disappointing 2004–05 season that saw Capello leave for Juventus and Roma slip to eighth place while making four coaching changes during the course of the season, including Cesare Prandelli, Rudi Völler, Luigi Delneri and Bruno Conti, Totti maintained his consistent offensive output by scoring fifteen goals, among them his 100th Serie A goal against Internazionale on 3 October 2004. Two months later, on 19 December, he became Roma's all-time leading scorer after netting his 107th career goal against Parma, breaking the record previously held by Roberto Pruzzo.