The Surprising Proposal From Fàbregas to Francesco Totti at Como in Serie A

Fàbregas' proposal

Francesco Totti, the Roma legend, turned down a proposal from Cesc Fàbregas to return to football and join Como at the age of 48, according to an autobiography published this Tuesday, in which he also states that he rejected Genoa for not wanting to betray the Roman team.

"I said no to Serie A. I said no to Genoa. I said no to Como. I was 48 years old. The coach of Genoa was Alberto Gilardino, a world champion like me with Italy in 2006, while on the Como bench was already Cesc Fàbregas, one of the greats in the history of football," he writes in the book "Oltre" ("Beyond") about this anecdote from about two years ago.

Gilardino was 42 years old, Fàbregas 37, so he would have been respectively 6 and 11 years older than those who were paid to tell me what to do. They are not urban legends, it's the plain truth. Incredible, but true. "Crazy," he adds.

Totti, who retired from 'the Wolf' in 2017 after 25 years at the club, emphasized in his confessions that he seriously considered the possibility of returning to professional football since his physical condition allowed it, but the conclusion was always the same: "Can you play for a team that is not Roma?"

"I was 48 years old, okay, but age can somehow be overcome; one becomes slower, but the foot doesn't age. Everyone agrees: he doesn't need Botox. Roma was the point. Not the problem, never will be. A sports betrayal has no age, whether you are 18 or 48 years old," he explains.

The eternal captain and '10' of Roma recounts that before giving an answer to the leaders of Genoa and Como, he took some time, during which he started working hard, to think about the decision.

"I continued with the 8-a-side football on Mondays, added three weekly sessions at the gym and two with the physiotherapist, and controlled my diet. No more bread, no more sweets, no more anything. Giving up sweets was really tough (...) I trained and it wasn't too hard for me, my body responded well, aside from the normal discomforts of someone approaching fifty," he emphasizes.

"The head said it could accept, the heart said no; then the roles would switch, thoughts would slow down and the heart would race," he recounts regarding the weight his past at Roma, the club of his life, had on his decision.

Totti's confessional book, co-written with Italian journalist Alessandro Alciato, went on sale this Tuesday with the subtitle: "You retire and anything can happen. And then one has to tell the story". EFE

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