Roma grapple with Totti row
milan — Francesco Totti is such a big part of AS Roma that Rudi Garcia, the club’s coach at the time, wondered whether the talismanic playmaker was more important to the city than the Pope.
Playing his 24th season at his only professional club, where he has scored 300 competitive goals, Totti seemed to feel that he would be allowed to carry on playing as long as he wanted.
The 39-year-old predicted last month that he would continue playing for another two years but recent events suggest he has become an awkward presence for coach Luciano Spalletti and raised the uncomfortable question of whether he is bigger than the club.
Totti, who has played under 16 different coaches at Roma, complained in a television interview on Saturday about his lack of playing time. In response, the forward was left out of the squad for Sunday’s game against Palermo and watched it from the stands.
A 5-0 rout saw the ‘Giallorossi’ boost their Champions League hopes for next season, and gave Totti a stark reminder the team, despite a rollercoaster season so far, can and will do without him.
Grilled for hours by the media afterwards, Spalletti emerged with a small victory that simultaneously reinforced his position and left Totti looking petulant, insecure and expecting “special treatment”.
“The club appointed me to restore order in this squad, and I have to make decisions that are for the good of the club,” Spalletti told La Domenica Sportiva programme.
“I have to coach this squad and treat everyone the same. Totti is the captain but that doesn’t mean he gets special treatment.
“I don’t accept any of my players speaking out like that on the eve of a crucial game for us, especially when we’re on a four-game winning run.
“He’s Roma’s biggest ever player, but it’s my duty to make sure there is a balance in the dressing room.”
Despite winning only one league title with Roma, in 2001, Totti has been a virtual ‘untouchable’ at the club where he has spent his entire career. But having fallen down the pecking order due to a troublesome injury that has restricted him to just five appearances so far this season, his influence is on the wane.
Yet the drama, on paper, looked avoidable. —