Totti: ‘I would have liked to play with Ronaldo, Il Fenomeno, I would have made him score 3 times as many goals’

GENOA, ITALY - SEPTEMBER 28: Francesco Totti, former captain of Roma, reacts prior to kick-off in the Serie A TIM match between Genoa CFC and AS Roma at Stadio Luigi Ferraris on September 28, 2023 in Genoa, Italy. (Photo by Simone Arveda/Getty Images)

Francesco Totti has marked his 50th birthday by looking back across his career, and named the one team-mate he wishes he had been given.

Speaking to Corriere dello Sport, via TuttoMercatoWeb, the Roma legend was asked who he would most like to have played alongside.

“Ronaldo, Il Fenomeno. I would have made him score three times the goals he already scored. We would have played together with our eyes closed.”

Totti: ‘Maradona isn’t even in the rankings, he was superior to everyone’

Asked to choose between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, he refused to separate them, and then dismissed the question entirely.

“They were the two strongest players in the history of football, because Maradona isn’t even in the rankings, he was superior to everyone. I would have liked to play with both.”

On the team-mates he actually had, Totti named two. “The ones I got on with best, I’ll say two: on the pitch with Cassano, off the pitch with Candela.”

He was equally direct on coaches. “I’d say Mazzone and Zeman understood me most, Carlos Bianchi the least, he wanted to send me away.”

Totti also revisited his departure from Roma’s boardroom, which followed his retirement in 2017 and ended acrimoniously in 2019.

“I had an influence but I was a player. It’s normal that I had a different weight, I was important, I was the captain. As a director I was cumbersome. That isn’t a raw nerve. I gave up three years of contract and a role because I didn’t want to be at the club doing nothing. I felt useless.”