«It is Monday evening, we are about to close the last pages of the newspaper and like every week we will soon go to print. Everything is ready when a phone call warns us that Enzo Totti, Francesco Totti's father, "the sheriff" as everyone calls him in Rome, has just died at the Spallanzani Hospital where he was hospitalized for having tested positive for Covid. He was 76 years old. What to do, we ask ourselves. We thought up this entire issue of Vanity Fair to celebrate his son, the hero, the man, the footballer who will be on the big screen from Saturday 17 October in a documentary by Alex Infascelli. In the following pages, the former historic captain of Roma reveals himself in an interview with Malcom Pagani as he rarely did before, during his long, very long career. We are speechless, also very excited because on the set, during the photo shoot, Francesco had said nothing, he was as always professional, helpful, smiling. Totti, in fact. “When I enter the field, Francesco stays out and I become Totti. Because Totti has everything it takes to be in there ”, says the captain. I imagine him as Homer's heroes, Achilles, or Hector, who go to meet their destiny even when they know how it will end. Proud, sure. Glorious, in fact. The first shots of the ball on the beach. Football games as a child, when the older ones didn't want him in the team and Enzo, his father, said “let him play”. Because as soon as Francesco puts his feet on the ball, everyone is speechless. The first engagement, the first check. The call-up to Serie A, the national team, the injury, the World Cup, the Scudetto. The ups and downs, the blows inflicted and those suffered, the glories and errors, the penalties scored, the deadly right, the rage of a rosicone, the joy of a champion. Enzo was always next to his son while Francesco became Totti and Totti was Roma. It is difficult to measure the strength, the greatness of this athlete. The only way I can think of is to remember a match, not even one of the most important ones. On the stands, for the first time, Francesco invited his future wife Ilary Blasi. Before entering the field, he decides to put on a white shirt with the words "6 unique" under the one with the number 10 as captain. If he scores, he will remove it and thus declare his love for her. The game is about to end, he has made three assists that have generated three goals. The final whistle is missing, hopes are about to vanish. Then, suddenly, with his deadly right, he scores another goal. He runs towards the stands, lifts his shirt. The rest is history. Here, if I think about what the destiny is, the destiny of this hero, that of his father, perhaps that of everyone, then I realize that destiny is to put on a shirt, a dream under the life of all time and hope that it will come true without knowing if it will happen. In that gesture, in that "however it goes", there is everything. The love, the patience, the pride of a father who never said you were good but who always showed you that he is there, behind, near, beside. And the greatness of a son who has never said much but has always shown that he can do more. Goodbye Enzo. Everyone would like a dad like that "he comments Simone Marchetti, director of Vanity Fair.

What is really important to the historic captain? “Besides the children, the family, the things that really matter? The given word. No signatures, contracts or lawyers needed. A handshake is enough. Just look into your eyes. They have taught me certain things since I was a child and I still believe in certain things .

Vanity Fair has decided to respect the word given to the former football player who in this issue tells himself without filters in the beautiful and rare interview he gave to Malcom Pagani remembering his past, how he faced the difficult retirement from football fields and the his relationship with Luciano Spalletti.

In thirty years, he has given very few interviews. “I'm not self-centered. I'm not someone who likes to talk, who dreams of appearing or who craves to be in front of the camera like many others. I prefer to take three steps back, hide, disappear if possible. Because with me there was always a risk. I like to joke, be ironic and play down, but behind a joke there is often the truth. And the truth was sometimes better not to express it. Saying what I knew, or what I thought, would create problems. I would have done only damage: to myself and to society. I preferred to avoid .
“For years, hearing so many false things about me made me suffer. There were times when to disprove the lies they told in the newspapers, on the radio or on TV, I would have gone to war. I am touchy. As they say in Rome, a rosicone .

On the meeting – with Maurizio Costanzo and Maria De Filippi – who helped him the most, suggesting that irony would make his existence lighter: "Two people who would never betray me. They were good at making me understand that I could only benefit from a different attitude towards pressure. I listened to him and I am not saying that my life has changed since that day, but almost .

Speaking of his youth, his first check, his idol and his first goal, remember: «Especially when you are young, money totally changes your life. You start thinking big and finding a fit is complex. The first large check I received on a Friday: too late to be able to change it at the bank. We hatched it in the family, like an egg, until Monday morning .

Ambition? «To be like Peppe Giannini, the captain of the Roma of my youth. I identified him as the prince of Rome, the number 10 par excellence. When they called me to the first team I asked if it was possible to share a room with Peppe. They granted it to me. It was a daydream. There, in the bed next to mine slept the person whose poster I had in my room. It made an impression on me. "

He remembers what he felt about after scoring the first goal: «I felt like the children they give to the electric track of the cars. I had prepared a celebration under the south where I had been many times to cheer, but I scored under the north and forgot about it. It was a moment of happy madness. I was going left and right, I wanted wings at that moment .

On the fact that it was said that in Rome he decided on signing campaigns, formations, coaches, he comments: «All bullshit. There is not a single teammate or coach among the many I have met who can tell me to my face: "You have decided, you have asked, you have demanded". I will always walk with my head held high because I trained on the pitch and I never said "play this or play that". I never asked for anything, apart from being able to win. True, I wanted to. I wanted strong players like Buffon, Thuram and Cannavaro because I had no desire to play the baby while the others were celebrating. What is the fault? Where is it?".

On his retirement: "I knew that sooner or later that moment would come, but I only started considering the hypothesis in the last year. In the previous season I understood that they would not want to renew my contract: however, then, every time I took over, I changed the games and scored goals. After the one with Torino, where I entered two minutes 4 minutes from the end, they renewed it by popular acclaim. I should have retired on that perfect evening, after the apotheosis, as Ilary suggested to me and I also thought about it. Then after a sleepless night I decided to continue, but unfortunately the relationship with him was already compromised .

On the relationship with Spalletti he says: "I want to make a premise: the coach chooses who to field in absolute autonomy. He is rightly in control of decisions and I have never allowed myself to question them or contest them. Then there is a question of humanity and things change there. The more I tried, the more he sought the break, the provocation, the quarrel or the pretext. I quickly realized that in those conditions it would be impossible to continue. So, for the first time in 25 years of Rome, between January and February, I gave up .
After having risked a physical confrontation in Bergamo, to date on the possibility of shaking his hand, he replies: «In football you are wrong, we are all wrong. Let's say I should understand what moon I'm on that day, how I wake up, if I'm in a good mood .

On the relationship with his teammates he recalls: «Some feared the reaction of the coach, who might say: 'You stay with him'. Is sad? It's ugly? Unfortunately he is human and there are very few fraternal relationships in football. However, that last year was a nightmare. In those days I began to rethink how he behaved in the beginning, when I was the captain, the symbol, the undisputed player. And to understand that they were saying to me: "You're forty, step aside, don't break my balls," hurt me. "

When asked if he would ever be a coach, he replies: "It would be impossible. I'd go crazy. I am someone who always wants the best and thinks that certain mistakes in Serie A cannot be made. I should become stern, harsh, obnoxious. If you're not born there, son of a whore, you won't become us.