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Thu 11 February 2021 | 16:30

Francesco Totti Biography

Named as the top goalscorer and the most capped player in Roma's history, Francesco Totti was surely one of the best-attacking midfielders and forwards of his time. In this article, we take a look at his biography.

Francesco Totti is an Italian former professional footballer who is the holder of the record for the most goals scored in

Serie A

while playing for a single club, as well as the record for the youngest club captain in the history of Serie A. After his retirement in 2017, he was awarded the Player's Career Award and the UEFA President's Award. 

Often referred to as Er Pupone (The Big Baby),L'Ottavo Re di Roma (The Eighth King of Rome), Er Bimbo de Oro (The Golden Boy), Il Capitano (The Captain), and Il Gladiatore (The Gladiator) by the Italian sports media,Totti is considered to be one of the greatest Italian players of all time, one of the best players of his generation, and Roma's greatest ever player.Totti is also regarded by some as Italy's greatest player ever.

let's move forward to have an in-depth look at the personal and professional life of Francesco Totti.

All You Need to Know About Francesco Totti

Francesco Totti was born on 27 September 1976 in Rome, Italy. He was raised in the Porta Metronia neighborhood. like so many other footballers, Totti started his football since he was a very small kid. He grew up, progressed and went through different challenges to introduce himself as a prolific soccer player.Stay tuned to know more about

Francesco Totti life Story

Francesco Totti information

In the following part of

Francesco Totti Biography

, you can find some general information about him listed down here. 

Francesco Totti Bio

  • Full Name

    : Francesco Totti Ufficiale OMRI

  • Nickname

    : Er Pupone 

  • Profession:

    Professional Football Player

Francesco Totti Physical Stats

  • Weight:

    75 Kilograms

  • Height

    : 1.80 m

  • Eye Color

    : Green

  • Hair Color

    : Light Brown

Francesco Totti Football Information

  • Position

    : Forward / Attacking midfielder

  • Jersey Number

    : 10 (A.S. Roma / Forward)

  • Professional Debut:

    1989

Francesco Totti Date of Birth and Personal Info

  • Date of Birth

    : 27 September 1976 

  • Birth Place

    : Rome, Italy

  • Zodiac Sign

    : Libra

  • Francesco Totti Nationality

    : Italian 

  • Francesco Totti Religion

    : Roman Catholic

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Francesco Totti Early Life

In this section of Francesco Totti Biography, we will have a glance at his early life.Totti was born on 27 September 1976 in the city of Rome in the country of France to Lorenzo, his father, and Fiorella, his mother. He started football from a very early age and when he was 8 he began to play in the youth team. Before joining the Roma youth squad in 1989, he had the experience of playing with Fortitudo, SMIT Trastevere, and Lodigiani. That year Gildo Giannini who was one of Roma’s youth coaches encouraged his parents to let him join the Roma youth squad.

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Francesco Totti Profile

In this section of Francesco Totti biography, we will we will review his professional career from his early days until now. As it was mentioned earlier he started his early career with Fortitudo Luditor in 1983 and after a season he went on to play for Smit Trastevere for two years and before he joins Roma's youth team in 1989 he had a three-year spell with as well.He started his professional career with I Giallorossi in 1992  and his first-team debut came on an away victory against Brescia on 28 March 1993 when he was 16 years old.

In the next season, Totti began to appear more in the first team and managed to score his first goal against Foggia. He then performed well in the next three seasons and scored 16 goals in that period. He had become a regular in Roma's starting line-up however the Italian footballer got less playing time under new manager Carlos Bianchi and was even set to leave for

Sampdoria

but Roma's chairman Franco Sensi impeded the transfer.

The next following years as Zdeněk Zeman became the manager of

Roma

, Totti's playing developed and showed a great performance on the left-wing.HE showed leadership and responsibility for the team and finally on 31 October 1998, he became the youngest Serie A club captain ever at the age of 22.After a couple of years, Totti was positioned as an attacking midfielder due to his playmaking abilities and passing skills. He helped the team win the 2001 Serie A championship which happened to be his only Serie A title.

Years went by and his role transitioned to a striker, he won two Coppa Italias and two Supercoppa Italiana titles.By the year 2012 Totti had scored 217 goals for Roma and became the third-highest scorer in Serie A history. He went on playing for The Yellow and Reds till 2017 and finally on 28 May, he played his last game against Genoa and retired from his old club. When he came as a substitute for Mohamed Salah in the 54th minute, received a standing ovation from the fans.

At the international level, his first appearance for Italy's senior team came in 1998 after starring in Italy's under-16, under-19, and under-21 sides. Totti participated in Euro 2000,2002 World Cup, Euro 2004 and 2006 World Cup. Finally on 20 July 2007, he retired from Italy national team to focus on his club, Roma.

Stay tuned to read more about

 Francesco Totti Biography

 and get to know him better.

Style of Play

During his professional playings, Totti wore number 10 for most of his club career. He played as an offensive-midfield playmaker or as a supporting or deep-lying forward behind the main striker. He was mainly acknowledged as a highly skillful, elegant, and technically gifted attacking midfielder with a good knowledge of the game who was also a tactically versatile player and was capable of playing anywhere along the front line.

Totti was known as "manoeuvring center-forward" due to his movement and range of skills. It worth mentioning that although he was naturally right-footed, he could possess a strong and accurate shot from both inside and outside the area with either foot. You may be interested to know that despite his ability and talent, Totti was criticized for his character and lack of discipline on the pitch, which sometimes caused him to commit bad fouls and receive unnecessary bookings. With eleven red cards, he has the joint-sixth highest number of sending offs in Serie A history.

Reception

Francesco Totti is undoubtedly one of the greatest Italian football players and also Roma's greatest ever player. He is often referred to as The Golden Boy, The Eighth King of Rome, The Big Baby, The Captain, and The Gladiator by the Italian sports media. Although he spent his entire career at Roma, he holds the record for the most goals scored in Serie A. Totti is considered a creative offensive playmaker and known for his technique, vision, and goalscoring ability.

In 2004, he was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the world's greatest living players as selected by Pelé, as part of FIFA's centenary celebrations. The 44 Italian footballer extended his record as the oldest goalscorer in UEFA Champions League history in 2014 when he was 38 years and 59 days.

Goal Celebration

Francesco Totti was known for his energetic and funny goal celebrations. He used to display his T-shirts with messages on them from under his jersey. Tow of them for his wife, "You're One of a kind" and "You're Still the One”, a political one "Free Giuliana" which related to an Italian journalist who was kidnapped in Iraq, "Sorry for the delay" as an apology to fans. One of his most famous celebrations was in 1999 in the second Derby of the 1998-99 season in which when he scored a goal and showed his T-shirt under his jersey which read “I've purged you guys again".

Once as a tribute to his then-pregnant wife, Totti imitated a childbirth scene by stuffing the ball under his shirt and lying on his back while his teammates extracted the ball. His current ceremony of sucking his thumb after a goal started after his son was born and continued after the birth of his daughter.Also, his famous selfie goal celebration was included among the goal celebrations available for FIFA 16 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2016.

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Francesco Totti outside football

Francesco Totti is active in advertisements, movies, television programs, and some other activities and businesses. He used to appear in advertisements for the sportswear company Nike, featured in Nike's "Secret Tournament" advertisement alongside some other footballers including Luís Figo, Ronaldo, Hidetoshi Nakata, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos, and Eric Cantona. 

He has also been featured in some video game series as well as the cover of some Italian magazines and newspapers. He also appeared in advertisements for a telephone company. During the last 10 years, he has participated several times in different television programs.When in 2010 the actor Russell Crowe came to Rome to promote the special edition of the film Gladiator, Totti appeared alongside him.In 2020, a documentary film named My Name Is Francesco Totti has been made by  Alex Infascelli about Totti’s life.

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Francesco Totti Personel life

Francesco Totti was born 1n 1976 to his Mother, Fiorella Totti (a strict housekeeper) and Father Lorenzo Totti (a former bank clerk) in Rome. He's got one brother, Ricardo.Francesco’s mother did take an active interest in his early career as a footballer and he was a keen follower of football since childhood. He joined the youth ranks of Roma when he was only 13 years old.

Family, Children, and Relationships

Francesco Totti is married to Ilary Blasi who was a showgirl and a co-host of Italia 1's hit show. They got married in 2005. The couple has often been referred to as the "Italian Beckhams" and Italian magazines and tabloids care about their private life. The couple has three children, a son, Cristian, (born in November 2005), and two daughters, Chanel (born in May 2007) and Isabel (born in March 2016).

Philanthropy

 It is safe to say Francesco Totti is an active footballer in charity foundations. He used to work as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF in 2003 and an ambassador for the FIFA/SOS Children's Villages in January 2006. He is a fundraiser of a children's charity and published two best-selling joke books containing jokes the locals often told about him and his teammates. Some of these jokes have been filmed featuring himself with some of his friends and national teammates such as Alessandro Nesta, Gianluigi Buffon, Antonio Cassano, Christian Vieri, and former national team coach Giovanni Trapattoni. 

Totti helped to begin a new campaign to promote Football Adopting Abandoned Children in collaboration with the Association of Italian Players. He adopted a team of around 11 young Kenyans to play football in Nairobi, and then to coach them along the way. In September 2020, Totti recorded a video message for a hospital patient who awoke from her coma when his voice was played and later he visited her in the hospital.

Legal Issues

There are not any vital legal issues to be found related to Francesco Totti. It seems although there has been some criticism about his behavior on the pitch, he hasn’t had severe legal issues.However, there was a doping case against him which was dropped after the initial investigation. 

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Francesco Totti Career Statistics

Following Francesco Totti's biography, in this part, we would have a rundown of his Career Statistics. 

Clubs

As his youth career, Francesco Totti joined Fortitudo Luditor in 1983. The following year he joined Associazione Sportiva. In 1986 he went to Lodigiani and finally, he started to play for Rome in 1989.

After three years in the youth team, Totti made his first appearance for Roma's senior side in Serie A when he was 16. spent all his professional career playing solely for one club, Roma. Some of the coaches he worked with were Carlo Mazzone, Carlos Bianchi, Zdeněk Zeman, Cesare Maldini. Francesco Totti totally had 786 appearances in Roma and he scored 307 goals for the club.

International

Francesco Totti came into international prominence for the first time while he was still in FIFA and UEFA youth tournaments.He reached the final of the 1993 UEFA European Under-16 Championship in Turkey with the team. 4 years later he played a key role in helping Italy to win a gold medal at the 1997 Mediterranean Games.After being successful in Italy's under-16, under-19, and under-21 sides, Totti earned his first senior cap for Italy. Totally, Totti made 58 appearances for Italy between 1998 and 2006, scoring nine goals and making 24 assists.

When Italy went to Euro 2000 with Totti, he was in his excellent form. During that tournament, he scored two goals and provided an assist. He scored his first goal against co-host nation Belgium and named man of the match for his performance. Due to his performances throughout the European Championship, Totti was chosen for the 22-man Team of the Tournament.

Much more was expected of Francesco Totti after he was handed the number 10 shirt and Italy's playmaking duties. It was the tournament of the 2002 World Cup and although the team had a satisfying start in Japan and Korea, it followed with disappointment as Totti failed to score or make any important impact throughout the tournament. Even later his performance was criticized by the Italian media.

In Euro 2004, Although Totti was expected to be Italy's star player in the number 10 role, unfortunately, he acquired a measure of infamy after he spat at Danish midfielder and was subsequently banned until the semi-finals and finished the competition scoreless due to Italy's elimination in the first round on direct encounters.

Although Totti had some injury troubles and a lack of match practice during his three months on the sidelines, he recovered in time to join the national team for the 2006 World Cup campaign. He not only was named to Marcello Lippi’s 23-man squad for the 2006 World Cup but he also was an important player in the team Despite initial concerns over his match fitness. He played in all seven games for Italy, including the victorious final against France, which Italy won on penalties.

after the 2006 World Cup, Totti decided to retire from international football but he changed his mind and remained undecided for more than a year. He finally made his retirement official on 20 July 2007 in order to focus solely on club play with Roma. Of course, During the next 10 years, there were some attempts to bring him back but it never happened due to his own Lack of physical fitness or coaches’ decisions. 

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Francesco Totti Honors

Francesco Totti entered the professional level of football in 1989 and till 2017, the year of his retirement, his prosperous career is highlighted by several trophy wins. Totti started with the Italy Youth team with which he could win Mediterranean Games (Under-23) in 1997 and UEFA European Under-21 Championship in 1996.In 1992 he joined Roma where he spent his entire career. with this team he could win Seria A in 2000-01, Coppa Italia in 2006-07, 2007-08 as well as Supercoppa Italiana in 2001 and 2007.

 Being one of the most influential soccer players in his country and the world, Francesco Totti won so many individual trophies including Guerin d'Oro in 1998 and 2004, Serie A Young Footballer of the Year in 1999, Serie A Footballer of the Year in 2000 and 2003, Serie A Italian Footballer of the Year in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2007, ESM Team of the Year in 2000–01, 2003–04, 2006–07, Serie A Goal of the Year in 2005 and 2006, 2006 FIFA World Cup All-Star Team, 2006 FIFA World Cup: Assist Leader, Serie A Assist Leader in 1998–99, 2006–07, and 2013–14, Serie A Top Scorer in 2006–07, European Golden Shoe in 2006–07, Oscar AIC-Serie A Top scorer in 2007, Pallone d'Argento in 2007–08, Golden Foot in 2010,Premio Nazionale Carriera Esemplare "Gaetano Scirea" in 2014, Premio internazionale Giacinto Facchetti: 2014, UEFA European Under-21 Championship All-time XI in 2015, Roma Hall of Fame in Class of 2017, UEFA President's Award in 2017, Gazzetta Sports Awards Legend in 2017, Globe Soccer Player Career Award in 2017, Laureus Academy World Sports Exceptional Achievement Award in 2018, Gran Galà del Calcio AIC Career Award in 2018 and Italian Football Hall of Fame in 2018. 

Francesco Totti has many records as well including Roma All-Time Leading Goalscorer with 307 goals,Roma All-Time Leading Goalscorer in Serie A with 250 goals,Roma All-Time Leading Goalscorer in UEFA Champions League with17 goals,Roma All-Time Leading Goalscorer in UEFA Europa League with 21 goals, Roma All-Time Leading Goalscorer in UEFA Competitions with 38 goals, Roma All-Time Appearance Maker with 786 games, Roma All-Time Appearance Maker in Serie A wth 619 games,Roma All-Time Appearance Maker in UEFA Champions League with 57 games, Roma All-Time Appearance Maker in UEFA Europa League with 46 games, Roma All-Time Appearance Maker in UEFA competitions with 103 games, UEFA Champions League oldest goalscorer, aged 38 years 59 days as of 25 November 2014, Serie A youngest club's captain, aged 22 years 34 days, Most goals for a single club in Serie A with 250 goals, Second-most goals scored in Serie A with 250 goals, Rome Derby All-Time Leading Goalscorer in Serie A with11 goals, Most penalties scored in Serie A with 71 goals, Most different teams scored against in Serie A (alongside Roberto Baggio and Alberto Gilardino) with 38 scores.

So that was  

Francesco Totti Biography

. Hope you enjoyed it.

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