How Totti became bigger than Roma after 25 years of loyalty

Francesco Totti was denied a proper farewell tour. Roma manager Luciano Spalletti couldn't afford a long-winded swansong, not with direct Champions League qualification at stake.

The decision to sideline the 40-year-old was not taken lightly. Benching Totti was like disrespecting the entire city, even if Spalletti had good reasons. The coach ultimately caved in to the pressure and gave Totti the final 36 minutes to play Sunday, and while he didn't contribute much to Roma's wild 3-2 win over Genoa that indeed booked a one-way ticket to Europe's premier competition, the stadium, half-empty on so many occasions this season, was sold out because of one man.

"Totti is Rome," read one banner at the Stadio Olimpico prior to kickoff.

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Circling the track after the match, Totti broke down in tears. He gave as much as he could to the Giallorossi, even if they cornered him into an ultimatum: Either retire or play elsewhere. Many have criticised the club for the way it's handled a living legend whose contract is up, but it's no different than what happened to Javier Zanetti and Alessandro Del Piero, whose last seasons with Inter and Juventus ended without much of a say.

The game is a business.

Previous managers tried and failed to limit Totti's role. No one outlasted him. Spalletti himself said he would have never returned to Roma because playing Totti became more of an issue than winning games. He has paid a huge price for being pragmatic.

In the end, it's down to one fact: Totti is - and long has been - bigger than the club.

Giving up a more successful career elsewhere, Totti decided to stay in the city of his birth and build a legacy.

Everybody knows the story by now. His mother, Fiorella, prevented him from joining AC Milan as a 13-year-old, and he later turned down advances from Real Madrid. Totti valued home over trophies. His sacrifice wasn't exactly financial - he's still pulled in more than €100 million since the 1996-97 season, according to Calcio Finanza - but it was rare to see in an age of the individual.

His loyalty was tested, though his connection to Rome could not be broken. The people of Roma reciprocated with a mural commissioned by city officials several years ago. His loyalty drew respect from contemporaries Steven Gerrard, Xavi, and Ryan Giggs. It helped turn him into a behemoth of calcio.

Maybe it was a fear of change that forced him to stay. He famously wrote in The Players' Tribune that he only moved out of his parents' house once he married Ilary Blasi in 2005.

He has also proved time and again that he has a craving for the spotlight. His wedding was the centre of a four-and-a-half-hour TV marathon, author John Foot wrote in "Calcio," such was the interest in his personal life.

He used the media to air his grievances when he wasn't playing enough, and his style of play was defined by backheel passes, Panenka penalties, long-range goals, and beautiful assists. He would reveal slogans under his shirt after scoring big goals and took a premeditated selfie after becoming the all-time leading scorer in the Derby della Capitale. Everything he did demanded attention, and his eternally grateful supporters were happier for it.

More importantly, he did it as one of them. He did it for them.

"When I'm out and about and meet people, I get a sense of their excitement and I'm proud and honoured to be the captain of this Roma," Totti said in 2001.

Even though it is the Italian capital, Rome is not a place that keeps talent. Players come and go, like tourists themselves, but Totti stayed throughout the leaner years when the club had to sell the likes of Cafu, Walter Samuel, and Emerson. It helped that the Giallorossi offered Totti special privileges, putting his personal trainer, Vito Scala, on the team's payroll and going as far as to give him his own office.

It was at that point that it dawned on former manager Rudi Garcia, who was appointed in 2013, that Totti was "untouchable," Irish Times correspondent Paddy Agnew recalled recently.

But the man on his own was worth all the concessions in the world. There was that chipped penalty against Lazio, the rocket of a shot he scored against Parma to help clinch the 2001 Scudetto, that lob that sailed over Inter goalkeeper Francesco Toldo and into the net. Then, in 2007, when he stepped away from the Italian national team, he won the European Golden Shoe with 26 goals. And he did it in a striker-less 4-6-0 formation.

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He kept Roma relevant even when his teammates weren't exactly at his level. He brought thousands of fans to the city, just to watch him. Some became supporters of the club because of him.

A Roma with Totti is all they know.

He spent a grand total of 47,098 minutes wearing the jersey, according to Opta, or the equivalent of 32 days and 17 hours on the pitch. Only Silvio Piola recorded more Serie A goals than Totti's 250, and just Paolo Maldini made more Serie A appearances than Totti's 619.

Totti had an ugly side to him - no one can forget the time he spat on Denmark's Christian Poulsen, the cynical kick on Mario Balotelli, or his suggestion that Juventus fixed matches to win - but he never got caught up in scandals. He wisely turned a lot of the hate against him into a book for charity. "All the Totti Jokes" was a best-seller.

His relationship with Rome was very much a give and take. They both needed each other.

"Totti’s whole being is as a Roma footballer, whilst Roma will never have a better, more 'shirt-selling' international ambassador," wrote Agnew in the Irish Times.

It is common knowledge Totti will become a club director when he decides to retire. While his playing career in Rome is over, his future there is not.

Of course, as he came on to make his final appearance, with his boyhood club tied 1-1 with Genoa on Sunday, the dream was that he would score the winner and secure second place. Daniele De Rossi and Diego Perotti instead potted the goals that saw Roma through.

Totti then loomed over a pair of free-kicks in second-half stoppage time. He could've went for glory, but he headed for the corner flag to kill time. His final few touches weren't about him. They were for Roma.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)