page_title: Francesco Totti
section_title: Style of play
hierarchical_section_title: Francesco Totti / Player profile / Style of play
caption_attribution_description: English: Franceso Totti for A.S. Roma working the ball up the pitch in a friendly game against Chelsea FC. Game was played at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington D.C. on 10AUG2013
context_page_description: Francesco Totti Ufficiale OMRI is an Italian former professional footballer who played solely for Roma and the Italy national team primarily as an attacking midfielder or second striker, but could also play as a lone striker or winger. He is often referred to as Er Bimbo de Oro, L'Ottavo Re di Roma, Er Pupone, Il Capitano, and Il Gladiatore by the Italian sports media. A creative offensive playmaker renowned for his vision, technique, and goalscoring ability, Totti is considered to be one of the greatest Italian players of all time, one of the best players of his generation, and Roma's greatest ever player.
  Totti spent his entire career at Roma, winning a Serie A title, two Coppa Italia titles, and two Supercoppa Italiana titles. He is the second-highest scorer of all time in Italian league history with 250 goals, and is the sixth-highest scoring Italian in all competitions with 316 goals. Totti is the top goalscorer and the most capped player in Roma's history, holds the record for the most goals scored in Serie A while playing for a single club, and also holds the record for the youngest club captain in the history of Serie A.
context_section_description: Often referred to as Er Bimbo de Oro (The Golden Boy), L'Ottavo Re di Roma (The Eighth King of Rome), Er Pupone (The Big Baby), Il Capitano  (The Captain), and Il Gladiatore (The Gladiator) by the Italian sports media, Totti is considered to be one of the greatest Italian players of all time, one of the best players of his generation, and Roma's greatest ever player. Totti is also regarded by some as Italy's greatest player ever. Throughout his career, he played predominantly as a classic number 10, functioning either as an offensive-midfield playmaker or as a supporting or deep-lying forward behind the main striker; only in the later years of his Roma career was he mainly employed as a lone striker. An elegant, world-class, and technically gifted attacking midfielder with a good knowledge of the game, Totti was a tactically versatile player, capable of playing anywhere along the front line, and was also occasionally deployed as a winger or as a central midfielder under Zdeněk Zeman, and most notably as a false-9 under Luciano Spalletti and Rudi Garcia. Under Luis Enrique, he was also occasionally fielded in a more withdrawn creative role in midfield, functioning as a deep-lying playmaker.
  While Totti was a prolific goalscorer, he was also renowned for his ball control, vision, creativity, and range of passing, as well as his ability to set the pace in midfield and provide through-balls and assists for his teammates, often through his trademark use of the no-look pass or backheel, in particular when holding up the ball or playing with his back to goal. Throughout his career, Totti drew particular praise from pundits for his excellent vision, technique, and precise long passing ability, which allowed him to play the ball first-time. Due to his movement and range of skills, his role has at times been described as that of a hardworking, unselfish and dynamic centre forward, known as a centravanti di manovra in Italian (which literally translates to "manoeuvring centre-forward"). Known for his work rate, longevity, and willingness to contribute defensively, Totti underwent an athletic development during his time under Zeman: he undertook a muscle-strengthening programme to adapt to the rhythms of 21st-century football, gaining physical strength, stamina, fitness and shooting power to the detriment of some of his speed and agility, which also enabled him to maintain a consistent level of performance in his later career.
  Throughout his career, Totti utilised his balance, dribbling skills, and acceleration in order to get past opponents; despite being naturally right-footed, he possessed a powerful and accurate shot from both inside and outside the area with either foot, and was also an accurate penalty kick and free kick taker, who was capable of striking the ball either with power or swerve from set pieces. Totti also scored several goals from chipped shots throughout his career, and often used the technique on penalties, which was also known as the cucchiaio technique (or "spoon" in Italian); one of the most famous instances in which Totti performed this type of penalty was in the victorious shootout of Italy's Euro 2000 semi-final match against the Netherlands. One of his most famous lobbed goals, in which he dribbled past Inter's Marco Materazzi before chipping the ball over goalkeeper Júlio César, was later named the best goal in Serie A of the 2005–06 season. He scored another notable goal using this technique against Lazio in the 2002 Derby della Capitale, which ended in a 5–1 win for Roma. The title of Totti's 2006 autobiography Tutto Totti: Mo je faccio er cucchiaio (English: All about Totti: I'm gonna chip him now) referenced this technique, as well as the statement made to his Italy teammates before his memorable Euro 2000 semi-final shootout penalty against the Netherlands. Having served as Roma's captain for several years, Totti was praised for his leadership.
  Despite his talent and ability, however, Totti drew criticism at times for his character and lack of discipline on the pitch, which occasionally caused him 
caption: Totti during a pre-season friendly in 2013
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "4928", "Image ImageLength": "3264", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D5100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "1", "Image YResolution": "1", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2013:08:13 20:36:52", "Image WhitePoint": "[313/1000, 329/1000]", "Image PrimaryChromaticities": "[16/25, 33/100, 21/100, 71/100, 3/20, 3/50]", "Image YCbCrCoefficients": "[299/1000, 587/1000, 57/500]", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image XPKeywords": "[99, 0, 104, 0, 101, 0, 108, 0, 115, 0, 101, 0, 97, 0, 95, 0, 118, 0, 115, 0, 95, 0, 114, 0, 111, 0, 109, 0, 97, 0, 95, 0, 0, 0]", "Image Padding": "[]", "Image ExifOffset": "2552", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "5384", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5498", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "11621", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1400", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:08:10 19:36:30", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:08:10 19:36:30", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1120723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "1485427/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "4294967295", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "200", "EXIF SubSecTime": "80", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "80", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "80", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4167", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4031", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R03", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "5352", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "300", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Gamma": "11/5", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4092"}