Totti can’t walk the talk
Prior to the first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals between Italian giants AS Roma and English leaders Manchester United last week, Roma’s 30-year-old marksman and World Cup winner Francesco Totti sounded this warning to Sir Alex Ferguson and his troop:
“Ferguson, you will learn who Totti is,” the striker promised during an interview with Sky Sports. “He will see personally. I hope to make him remember my name.”
And even though he expects to be man-marked when the teams meet in Rome on Wednesday, Totti says it’s a situation he’s grown accustomed to.
“So they are going to put me in a cage? Opponents always make a cage for me. When I grow up I won’t be a footballer but I will work at the zoo with all the cages people have made for me.”
OK, he has every right to say what whatever he wants. After all, he said that Ferguson had failed to name him as the man to watch in their quarterfinal encounter. He had every reason to feel unflattered that Ferguson seems to have, at that point, underestimated.
Simply put, Totti could have been forgiven for feeling as though he was not a dangerman in the eyes of Ferguson.
Ferguson had, instead, named his teammates Daniele de Rossi and Alessandro Mancini.
So, one week and two legs later, Totti had this to say when queried by the media:
‘It is the saddest night of my sporting career,’ admitted Totti.
‘I had never conceded seven goals in a Champions League match before. Each shot they took, they found the target.’
‘We have conceded three goals in nine minutes,’ continued Totti. ‘We tried to react but in those conditions it was really difficult.’
‘Unfortunately, we have come across a better team.’
THE LAST LAUGH: Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson (left) and his assistant Carlos Queiroz grinning broadly after United’s scintillating 7-1 win over AS Roma.
What prompted Totti to say this was that, just moments before, he and his teammates bore witness to one of the most sensational victories.
Unfortunately though, the Romans were on the receiving end of a 7-1 mauling at the hands of a resurgent Manchester United.
Totti, visibly shell-shocked and disappointed, had to concede that United were miles ahead of them, and did really well in turning a 1-2 deficit into a 8-3 aggregate victory..
What’s more, he even admitted that Portuguese stalwart Cristiano Ronaldo was way better than he was.
Speaking of which, he probably came to realise he was not the hitman or the talismanic striker he had wished to be.
Though he had threatened many times in both legs to score against United, he never did. In fact, his teammates de Rossi (*aha*), Taddei and Mirko Vucinic have the bragging rights of scoring against United, albeit very little.
Ferguson got his guesses right.
Definitely a very humbling moment for Totti.
Look who’s talking now. Even the Italian newspapers are raving about the United win.
