No Totti, No Party. That picture of the banners and the mere utterance of the phrase have become lore beyond the man himself. Francesco Totti is the ultimate symbol of loyalty in professional football – a relic of a golden era gone by in which players meant more than themselves to an entire city or region.
Just how good was Francesco Totti? What made him a legend in Italian football and an icon at Roma? Let’s take look back at his career and what made him such an important player to the Giallorossi for so many decades.
Francesco Totti’s career statistics
Francesco Totti joined Roma in 1993, making his senior debut at just 15 years old. He was a phenom and scored 13 goals in a single Serie A season by the time he turned 20 in the 1997/98 campaign, helping the Giallorossi finish fourth.
In total, Totti would score 250 goals across 619 appearances for Roma in Serie A. His best season came in 2006/07 at the peak of his career when he scored a jaw-dropping 25 goals with 9 assists. He reached double-digit assists on five occasions, including 14 assists in his breakout 1998/99 season as a 21-year-old, establishing himself as one of the biggest superstars in Europe.
Totti had 13 total seasons with double-digit goals scored in Serie A, including a streak of nine consecutive seasons from 2002/03 to 2010/11 in which he scored at least 10 times. Even at the age of 37 in 2014/15, Totti was contributing double-digit goals to the Roma good with six goals and eight assists that Serie A campaign.
He was the 2006/07 Capocannoniere winner, scoring the most goals in Serie A, with 25, and he twice led the league in assists, with his 14 assists in 1998/99 also leading Europe’s top five leagues.
Francesco Totti helped Roma reach the Champions League nine times in his career, scoring 18 career goals with 10 assists across 56 matches and 52 starts in Europe’s premier footballing competition.
He helped Roma reach the Champions League quarterfinals in back-to-back seasons in 2006/07 and 2007/08, scoring four goals with three assists in a career-best 2006/07 campaign.
Francesco Totti’s individual accomplishments
Twice, Francesco Totti won Serie A’s Guerin d’Oro as the best player in Italian football in 1998 and 2004. He is a member of the AS Roma Hall of Fame, inducted in 2007. Totti was then inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame one year later.
Francesco Totti’s team success with Roma
Francesco Totti led Roma to the Serie A title in the 2000/01 season, scoring 13 goals with 6 assists. The Giallorossi had not won the Scudetto since the 1982/83 season, and they have not won the league since Totti and Cafu led them to the top in 2001.
He also won two more major trophies with Roma, as the Giallorossi took home the Coppa Italia in back-to-back seasons in 2006/07 and 2007/08. Roma and their legendary No. 10 won the Italian Supercup in 2001 and 2007 as well.
Francesco Totti’s career statistics and achievements for the Italian national team
Francesco Totti achieved greatness with the Italian national team, too. The trequartista was a member of the 2000 European Championship Team of the Tournament when Italy made it to the final, falling to France 2-1 in the final.
Just six years later, Totti would taste gold for the Azzurri, playing a key role in the Italian side that won the 2006 World Cup over France in an act of revenge. Totti had more assists than any player in that tournament and was part of the team of the tournament.
Totti was clutch in the knockout stages of that World Cup, scoring the crucial penalty to knock out upstarts Australia and then helping orchestrate Alessandro Del Piero’s unforgettable winner over hosts Germany in the semifinals.
From 1998 to 2006, Totti was a regular for the Azzurri, scoring 9 goals in 58 appearances.
Francesco Totti’s playing style and best attributes
A trequartista, Francesco Totti was one of the first superstar false nines in world football and prided his game off creating chances for teammates from nowhere.
His flicks in the penalty area and even his through balls from deep made him the most dangerous playmaker in the world of his time. Totti could score with the best of them, given he was Serie A’s top scorer once with 25 goals, yet he was even better at putting his teammates first.
Totti’s unselfish leadership style in the attack made him a unique weapon and even more beloved by Roma fans, because they knew the magic he could conjure as a playmaker exceeded even the magic he provided as a goal-scorer. Totti twice won the award for Serie A’s best goal of the season.
He brought so much joy to the Roma faithful with his skill and vision. Totti could score or assist from anywhere on the pitch, so opponents never knew what to expect from him. He was a genius off the ball, disrupting the defensive lines with his movement, as he worked hard to make himself available for teammates.
Totti wasn’t afraid to bring a grittiness to his game, which Roma fans very much appreciated from their playmaker. He could help set the tempo for the Giallorossi like a regista, even though he was a goal-getting, assist-providing trequartista. Throughout his career, there were only a handful of players who could match Totti’s threat from set pieces.
What legends and teammates said about Francesco Totti
Michel Platini called him an “artist” who surpassed even Zinedine Zidane, while former Roma star and legendary manager Carlo Ancelotti said that he regrets not playing with Totti, referring to the Roma 10 as a “symbol” of football.
Legendary Italian manager Giovanni Trapattoni said there was “nobody like Totti”, referring to him as the “Van Gogh” of football.
Steven Gerrard, another loyal man to an elite club in Liverpool, dubbed Francesco Totti the “King of Rome”.
One of the biggest legends of Italian football, former Juventus and Parma goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, simply said that Totti is “immortal”.
In reference to his loyalty, current Italian national team manager Luciano Spalletti once said, “It would be easier to move the Colosseum out of Rome.”
Former Roma – and Liverpool – star John Arne Riise called him the “God of Rome” while playing with Francesco Totti when the playmaker was nearing the age of 40.
Another former Roma teammate, Nicolas Burdisso, likened Totti to the Pope.
Even rivals paid tribute to Totti, with former Inter Milan star defender Javier Zanetti calling him the “last emperor of Rome”, perhaps one of the most fitting signatures for the World Cup winner.
Teammate Juan Jesus said upon Totti’s farewell, “No one can ever make this shirt immortal, but there is one thing we can do: always remember what Rome is for you and what it is all about. That is why you will be in the fibers of the ‘giallorossa’ shirt. You are and you will always be part of Rome. Of its history and its great beauty.”
Before he joined Roma himself as a top playmaker, then-Juventus star Paulo Dybala said, “I will keep your shirt as a relic. I wish you the best in whatever you decide to do. You’ll always be Totti.”
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He has been an editor for NFL Spin Zone, Daily DDT for pro wrestling, Autzen Zoo covering the Oregon Ducks, Musket Fire covering the New England Patriots, The Real Champs covering Real Madrid, Old Juve covering Juventus, Rush The Kop covering Liverpool, and Release The Knappen covering Schalke. His work has been featured in ESPN, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, and other outlets. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.