Totti: "Dybala? The No 10 shirt is not given to someone who plays well in six or seven matches. Return to Roma? Marriages take two"

The return to Roma

"The failure to return to the club with the Americans? It always takes two to make a marriage. Ah well, unfortunately it happens. You get married and you split up, a beginning and an end as with all things, I think, right? I left an executive role with three years left on my contract, and I want to underline that. If I have to stay at the club doing nothing, I walk away. I don't steal money".

The managers

"But I trained with the whole squad and did what I had to do. Of course, on Monday or Tuesday I trained separately because of all the knocks I had taken on Sunday, a bit of recovery work. Was Mazzone the manager who understood me better than the others? Mazzone and Zeman. Bianchi wanted to send me away. I didn't send him away, but President Sensi did.

I was influential at the club... I mean that, rightly, I had an impact, but I was a player and I was an important player, Roma's captain. It is normal that I carried weight, a different weight from everyone else. But I wasn't part of the round table."

Popularity

"Popularity in Rome? Since I retired it has actually increased. Perhaps because I was born, grew up and died in a single shirt. When you bring twenty-five years of history to a close, you are dead, and yet here in Rome, for everyone, I am alive, very much alive. It is the choice I made, the love I gave to the people and the way I have always conducted myself with others."

The No 10 to Dybala

"The No 10 to Dybala? You don't give someone the No 10 just because they've played well in five, six or seven matches. I've always said you have to build a path that allows an important player to stay at Roma for a long time. There are no temporary No 10s. In the end, the decision on whether to give the No 10 to Dybala, or to Marco, or to Luca, is up to the club"

“I was embarrassing”

"Francesco, you said that from 2001 to 2008 you were embarrassing. "Yes". He answers with a broad smile, one of his.

"An Italian who was close to me? Everyone said Mancini, but I didn't really know him, I was almost at the beginning. At Sampdoria he also played as an attacking midfielder, the centre-forward, a bit of everything. But not the same goals I scored. I liked assists too, before Spalletti made me play as a centre-forward, I found them more important than goals"