Francesco Totti's mother turned down Milan so he could stay in Rome
When scouts came calling for a gifted Roman boy, his mother refused a lucrative offer from AC Milan. His youth club had nearly sold him to city rivals Lazio. Instead Francesco Totti joined Roma and never left, playing his whole career there and becoming known as the Eighth King of Rome.
Born in Rome on 27 September 1976 and raised in the Porta Metronia neighbourhood, Totti idolised the Roma captain Giuseppe Giannini and played with older boys. A Roma youth coach persuaded his parents to let him join the club's academy in 1989. He made his Serie A debut at 16 in March 1993 under Vujadin Boškov and scored his first goal in September 1994. In early 1997 he almost left on loan to Sampdoria, but chairman Franco Sensi blocked the move.
Under Zdeněk Zeman he grew stronger and became the club's number 10 and captain, still the youngest captain in Serie A history. Fabio Capello then rebuilt the side around him as a creative playmaker, and Roma won the league in 2000 to 2001. Totti was named Italian Footballer of the Year in 2000 and 2001 and finished fifth in the Ballon d'Or voting in 2001. Later, as a striker, he won the 2007 European Golden Shoe.
The numbers are remarkable for one club. He scored 307 goals and set up 205 more for Roma, and his 250 Serie A goals rank second in the league's history; no one has provided more Serie A assists. He holds the record for most Serie A goals for a single club and is Roma's top scorer and most capped player. Nicknames piled up, from the Golden Boy to the Emperor and simply the Captain, and he collected a record eleven awards from Italy's players' association.
For Italy, he won the European Under-21 title in 1996, reached the Euro 2000 final and won the 2006 World Cup, making the all-star team at both tournaments. His six World Cup assists are the most by an Italian. Recurring injuries led him to retire from international football in 2007. Pelé named him in the FIFA 100 in 2004, and when he finally retired in 2017 he received UEFA's President's Award.
Source: Francesco Totti
