Totti Will Not Set Foot in Roma Training Ground While Pallotta Remains
As long as James Pallotta remains Roma's owner, club legend Francesco Totti will not set foot in their facilities.
Francesco Totti will not set foot inside the Roma training ground while James Pallotta remains president of the club.
Roma icon Totti retired in May 2017 after making 786 appearances for the club and scoring 307 goals, moving into a directorial role at the Stadio Olimpico.
However, the former Italy international ended his 30-year association with the Giallorossi in acrimonious circumstances last June, hitting out at Pallotta for not sufficiently involving him in decision making.
Totti stated he would only return to Roma under different ownership and now cannot even bring himself to watch his son Cristian play for the Under-15s.
"Look, as long as the situation is like this, I will not set foot in Trigoria," Totti said in an Instagram Live conversation with Luca Toni.
"Every time I drop Cristian off for training, I stay outside the gate. Sometimes I sit in the car and feel like crying to think that after 30 years, I can't even set foot in there now.
"I left and that's that. I still have great friends and they come outside the gate to say hello. Every now and then, my son asks me to come in to watch him play, but I can't do it. That would kill me."
Totti felt like he was forced into hanging up his boots earlier than he would have liked because Roma went against previous promises and took the decision out of his hands.
"I didn't want to stop playing. I was in good shape physically, so why should I stop? It's not that I wanted to play all the time or was trying to force anyone to play me," he said.
"I didn't want to ruin my time at Roma, so it was better to just retire rather than go somewhere else for a year. I am not stupid, I'm not 10 years old, but if I am in good shape physically and mentally, I can see during training that I still have a lot to give and I'm second to no one…
View this post on Instagram 💛❤️ A post shared by Francesco Totti (@francescototti) on Apr 4, 2020 at 1:14pm PDT
"I would've been happy just being part of the group in the dressing room, helping the coach during difficult moments, working with the younger players to pass on my experience.
"Every time I came off the bench, the stadium would light up and that atmosphere helped everyone.
"There's an end to everything, I'm not dumb, but the problem is that some people told me it would be my decision and then shoved me to one side. I was upset, because I would've cut my leg off for Roma."
