It all starts with a ball carried to the flagas is done in the final minutes when you have to try to waste time to bring home the result. Francesco Totti, of minutes, he had 3 available on his debut in Serie A, and his first “action” was just that. His enormous career (786 appearances, all with the Roma shirt) thus begins, from the corner flag, on March 28, 199330 years ago.
The description of a moment
Final minutes of Brescia-Rome2-0 result for the giallorossi; Totti is 16 and a half years old “just completed” (he was born on 28 September 1976) and it was Boskovsurprising him: “At the moment I don’t realize that he is mad at me, I think he has turned to Muzzi, sitting next to him, and I call him back,” he says in his autobiography, “A Captain”, written together with Paolo Condò.
“Roberto looks at me amused: ‘He says to you, move’. To me? My heart leaps into my throat. I jump to my feet, I start taking off my sweatpants but, to hurry up, I don’t take off my shoes, which leads to a shameful embarrassment, I have to sit on the ground to make them pass with difficulty from the feet, in short, a mess. At one point Boskov gets impatient with such awkwardness, and strikes me: ‘What’s wrong, Totti, don’t you feel like making your debut?’. Just before my time runs out, I’m finally ready. I go in for Rizzitelli, it’s 87′. I have time to touch a ball, I bring it to the flag to gain precious seconds. Then the referee Boggi blows the whistle, and confusedly I realize that I played in Serie A“.
From flag to flag
Thousands of other unforgettable moments will follow, fragments of a legendary career filled with records that are even more precious because they were all conquered with the same shirt. For the debut as owner we had to wait a few more months (December 15, 1993, in the Italian Cup against Sampdoria, with Mazzone on the bench), then the first goal in Serie A (September 4, 1994, against Foggia), the first of 250 in 619 gare (obviously Roma’s record holder, he is also the Italian player to have scored the most with the same club), the captain’s band, the Scudetto, the title of top scorer and the Golden Boot, victories and falls, injuries and recovery. All wrapped up in 25 seasons becoming a legend, a flag. A flag “born” at the corner flag.
A circle that closes
It only happens to great stories, then, that close perfectly. Everything fits beautifully, everything is in its place. Totti’s farewell to football will come on 28 maggio 2017, among the tears of thousands of fans: it’s the day of “I hoped he died before”, of the letter read in the center of the field, of that last ball signed and kicked in the corner. That Roma-Genoa 3-2 didn’t end with a goal from him, perhaps it would have been too trivial. After 25 years of goals and assists, Francesco Totti’s last action is a compendium of humility: him back to the corner flag, to bounce the ball off an experienced opponent, before the triple whistle arrives. That little flag that started it all.
