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Francesco Totti
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Francesco Totti, (born September 27, 1976 in Rome) is an Italian football player, who currently plays for A.S. Roma in Serie A and for the Italian national team, with whom he won the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Francesco Totti's position is that of a striker or an attacking midfielder, though he is best known for playing as the trequartista (or second striker), a compromise between the two positions where the player acts as a link between midfield and attack. He is also Roma's first choice to take free kicks and penalties, having scored a number of goals from dead-ball situations.

Totti is widely recognised as the symbol of Roma, having never left the team despite the possibility of playing in stronger and richer clubs, and being the number one goalscorer and the most capped player in the club's history.

Childhood

Totti was born and raised in Rome, in the Porta Metronia city neighborhood. His parents are Enzo and Fiorella Totti. Unlike other children his age who preferred to watch cartoons, Totti was always more interested in watching football matches instead. Totti constantly played football with older boys. His mother refused a big deal for her son from A.C. Milan while waiting for a deal from his favourite club A.S. Roma. His mother intended to never let her son set foot out of the "Eternal City". Totti finally joined the A.S. Roma junior team in 1989.

National team

Totti scored in Italy's 4-1 defeat by Spain in the final of the UEFA European Under-18 Championship in July 1995. In the final of the Under-21 competition in 1996, Totti opened the scoring in a 1-1 draw against the Spanish before triumphing on penalties.

Totti made his senior Azzurri debut in the Euro 2000 qualifying victory against Switzerland on 10 October 1998. He played in the finals tournament and scored against Romania and Belgium and played in the final; losing to the France. Although he was on the losing side, Totti was named Man of the Match in the final and described by many footballing legends, including Michel Platini (France), as the best player of the tournament.

Disappointment followed at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, with Totti failing to make a significant impact and then being sent off as Italy lost to the South Korea in the second round, when he controversially received a second yellow card for alleged diving in the penalty area by referee Byron Moreno.

At Euro 2004, Totti garnered negative media attention when he spat at Christian Poulsen, a midfielder for the Denmark. Totti was subsequently banned until the semi-finals, but did not play in the tournament again, as Italy failed to qualify for the next round.

2006 World Cup

Totti's participation in the 2006 FIFA World Cup was put at risk by the broken ankle he suffered a few months before the tournament. He recovered in time to join the national team, although he was far from his best, and played with metal plates in his ankle that had yet to be removed. During the match with Australia, he scored from the penalty spot in the closing seconds of regulation time to give Italy a 1-0 victory. Italy then went on to face Ukraine, a match in which Totti provided an assist to defender Gianluca Zambrotta. Italy won the match 3-0 and moved on to the semifinals to face Germany. Totti started the game against Germany and played the entire match in which Italy defeated Germany 2-0. Totti was selected for the 23-man Mastercard All-Star Team.

Totti is currently considering whether or not to continue playing for the national team after he had made it clear that his intention was to retire from the national team after the World Cup.

Club

Francesco Totti was just 16 when he made his first appearance for AS Roma in a 2-0 away victory at Brescia Calcio on March 28, 1993. He scored four goals in twenty one outings in 1994-95 and over the ensuing seasons became a team regular. He was named Serie A Player of the Year in 2000 and in 2003. The following season (2000-01) he helped AS Roma secure their first league title since 1982-83, having scored thirteen Serie A goals. In the 2001-02 campaign Roma finished runners-up to Juventus, but Totti returned with a then personal-best of fourteen goals during the 2002-03 season.

2003-04: Playing in a more advanced role, Totti hit a career-high twenty goals as Roma finished second in Serie A behind A.C. Milan.
2004-05: A very disappointing season, the only bright side of which was Roma finishing second in the Italian Cup and thus qualifying for the UEFA Cup. In the 2004-05 season Roma had to replace four coaches. Despite all the problems, Totti scored twelve goals, and helped Vincenzo Montella score 21 with numerous assists. On December 19, 2004, Totti broke A.S. Roma's goal scoring record when he scored against Parma. It was Totti's 107th goal for the club, a record previously held by Roberto Pruzzo.
2005-06: A strange season for Roma and Totti. On 19 February 2006, while playing in the Italian Championship against Empoli F.C., he suffered a fracture of his left fibula, and severed the interconnecting ligaments with the malleolus. He returned from his injury on 11 May 2006 as a substitute in Roma's 3-1 defeat to Inter Milan in the Coppa Italia. As in the 2004-05 season, A.S Roma came in second in the Italian Cup (again trailing to Inter Milan). In the Serie A they finished 5th, and only qualified for the Champions League after the Calciopoli verdicts stripped Juventus and Fiorentina of their Champions League spots. Roma were then awarded 2nd place.
The team won eleven consecutive matches, matching AC Milan's 1989-90 record. The last match was won was a 2-0 victory against rivals S.S. Lazio, before a home draw thanks to a late goal from Inter ended the run. Coach Luciano Spalletti turned the team's line up from a defensive one to an attacking one (despite playing without strikers for most of the season, and for the last 8 or so games playing without Totti), and the team moved from fifteenth to fifth by the end of the season, with Totti scoring fifteen goals from midfielder or as a lone striker.

Celebration

Francesco Totti uses a variety of celebrations for special occasions. His most famous celebration was in the Rome derby of the 1998/1999 season. Totti scored the third and final goal for Roma in the final minutes of the game, and celebrated by flashing his undershirt that said, "Vi ho purgato ancora". This translates to, "I've purged you guys once again". This was in reference to the fact that Roma hadn't beaten Lazio in five years before that game. Another memorable celebration was when he took his shirt off and had a shirt under that said "6 (sei) Unica!" meaning you are unique, he flashed this to Ilary Blasi, his current wife. His most common celebrations are the one where he runs to the side, kissing his ring finger in honor of his wife and, then pointing upwards with his finger, thanking God. When his son, Christian, was born, he began sucking his thumb as a celebration to dedicate his goals to him.

He had a few celebrations that were unique. One time he put the ball under his shirt and he lay on his back as his teammates pulled the ball out. That of course was a skit of childbirth for his newborn son. Another time after he scored in the derby against Lazio he ran to the camera and started filming the crowd.

Personal life

Totti is married to Ilary Blasi, a former showgirl, who currently works as commentator and host on several RAI TV programs. The couple had their first baby, named Christian, on November 6, 2005. Ilary is pregnant again with their second child.

Totti also runs a football school, named Number Ten, and owns a motorcycle racing team called "Totti Top Sport".

His best friend is his brother, Riccardo. However, Totti always says that his brother was the better player when they were kids, but he was unlucky on his way. Totti had a strong bond with Riccardo so today, Riccardo is Totti's agent.

He also had a bad relationship with his previous coach Fabio Capello, who is currently coach of Real Madrid. Totti accused Capello of being a traitor for leaving Roma suddenly without a warning, and left the Roman team in a very bad shape which had them almost relegated to the second division in 2004-05 season. This rift started on Capello's last days with Roma: according to Totti, his behaviour to most of the players changed, and once advised the younger players not take Totti as their role model player, but to take Brazilian Emerson as an idol for his hard work. Several months later, Capello, Emerson and Frenchman Jonathan Zebina all left AS Roma for rivals Juventus suddenly.

His close friendship with former teammate Antonio Cassano was ended as well when Cassano created a ton of problems for AS Roma before moving off to join Real Madrid where he was later joined by Capello and Emerson. Currently Totti and Cassano are not on talking terms. In a public bust up with Capello, Cassano claimed that he was wrong to leave Roma and he hopes that Roma and Totti will forgive him.

Additional information

A goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, Totti published two self-effacing joke books in order to raise money for a children's charity. They were bestsellers for many months. Some of the jokes were filmed into short clips that were acted out by Totti himself, along with some of his national team mates such as Alessandro Del Piero, Gianluigi Buffon, Marco Delvecchio, Alessandro Nesta and Antonio Cassano.

Totti's idol player in his childhood was ex-Roma captain Giuseppe Giannini, whom he considers as his elder brother: he always wished to just shake hands with Giannini, and was one of his biggest fans. Several years after, Totti himself had the opportunity to play alongside Giannini on the pitch in the AS Roma kit.

Totti is famous for his chipping technique, called in Italian il cucchiaio (in English, "spoon" or in his Roman dialect (Romanesco), "er cucchiajo"). He has scored many beautiful goals using this technique. His famous early goals using this technique was in a shoot-out against Netherlands in the Euro 2000 semi-final when he scored against Netherlands keeper Edwin van der Sar, he also scored a second famous goal two years later against Lazio in the derby, which ended 5-1 to A.S. Roma, and against Inter a few years later after dribbling Marco Materazzi. Consequently, his autobiography is entitled "Mo Je Faccio Er Cucchiaio", which is Roman dialect (Romanesco) for "I'll chip him".

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 in March 2004.

Totti also collects sports shirts from teams around the world. In 2003 after a Six Nations rugby game between Italy and Ireland, two Irish players Brian O'Driscoll and Denis Hickie were approached by one of Totti's representitives offering two Totti shirts for each of theirs, the players duly accepted the honourable exchange.