ROMA legend Francesco Totti has left the club after 30 years as a player and director, leaving behind a scathing attack on club bosses.
After two years behind the scenes at Stadio Olimpico, the ex-striker has claimed that this exit is worse than hanging up his boots – adding: “I feel like it’d be better if I died.”
The Italian capital club slumped to sixth in the Serie A table last season, in their worst season since American billionaire James Pallotta became chairman in 2012.
A club icon who won the title in 2001 and the World Cup five years later, Totti took up his director role immediately after ending his playing career.
But his time in the boardroom was not a happy one and his resignation came with a series of pointed attacks against his old colleagues.
Totti stated: “They knew my intentions and what I wanted, to give so much to this club and team, but they never wanted me to, in all honesty.
“They excluded me from every decision.
“I wasn’t ever going to change Roma, but at least give a contribution. Many promises were made, very few of them real. As a fan, that disappoints me, because as a fan, I have dreams of seeing Roma compete at the top.
These people are hurting Roma, not doing what is best for the club.
Francesco Totti
“Even if we don’t win the Scudetto, we can compete and maybe win a trophy or two. Unfortunately, there are financial problems and they have to be respected.
“If we have to sell because this year we are running at a loss of £50million, we can’t sell youth players and get that amount of money. We have to sell important players. That’s how it works. This isn’t a surprise to anyone.
“Did someone stab me in the back? Yes. I will never name names, but there are people in there who don’t want me there.
“These people are hurting Roma, not doing what is best for the club.”
Franco Baldini drew much criticism from Totti, the former Tottenham Hotspur technical director considered a puppetmaster who has many critics for his advisory role inside the Lupi.
Roma owner Pallotta was often absent, the Italian claims, and that left a divided club.
He continued: “Pallotta is not there, he doesn’t know what’s going on, but I do. I know it like the pockets in my jeans.
“I know everyone from the usher and cleaners to the chiefs. I grew up in there. I know what the problems are, the resources, who is talking badly behind people’s backs.
“If someone talks behind another person’s back to you, then imagine what he says when you’re not there. I think Pallotta in Boston only gets a tenth of the real truth reported back to him.”
Totti criticised the club hierarchy for ending his playing career prematurely, as he saw it, with his move upstairs taken out of his hands.
“Everyone knows they made me stop playing,” he added. “They wanted me to stop. I had a six-year contract already as a director.
“The rapport with Franco Baldini has never existed and never will. If I made this decision, it’s only normal that there were misunderstandings, problems within the club.
“One of us had to go. I stepped aside because you can’t have too many people sticking their oar in and causing chaos.”
The signing of Javier Pastore over Arsenal target Hakim Ziyech was another moment Totti felt his voice wasn’t being heard.
And now he wants to see a Roma native take over the day-to-day running of the club as he feels the current figureheads care little about the fate of the team.
Totti noted: “You need a Romanista in there because, at times, when you see the final whistle and there are smiling faces, it pisses you off.
“You see directors who are happy to lose. It happens, but I will never name names. If we are all united, then we can achieve something.”
