Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 9y

Roma's Francesco Totti unconcered by Gerson posing with No. 10 shirt

Roma captain Francesco Totti has responded to criticism of the Serie A club's new signing Gerson for posting a picture on Twitter of him wearing a No. 10 shirt, saying he and everybody should have the right to dream of wearing his shirt one day.

Totti, 38, has been Roma's captain and No. 10 since 1997 and he has become a symbol of the Eternal City club, as well as Italian football as a whole. It was therefore seen as an affront by many that Gerson held aloft a No. 10 shirt with his name on it, not Totti's, before arriving in Italy to sign for the Giallorossi.

Roma's sporting director Walter Sabatini said it had been his idea, exonerating Gerson of any blame and saying he had done it to attract the player to Rome by making him feel he too can become a club legend.

That is a view shared by Totti, who met Gerson on Thursday and laughed off the incident. Afterwards, he turned to his own website to say how his shirt number should be something anybody can aspire to wear.

"The biggest wish I can have is that all lads and footballers get the opportunity to wear the Roma No. 10 shirt and be able to exchange it one day with a great champion like [Leo] Messi," Totti wrote.

"Everybody should have this possibility. The No. 10 is my second skin, but everybody should have the possibility of harbouring this dream, of wearing it and above all honouring it by reaching the best possible sporting objectives.

"Tomorrow we start again all together for our Roma. Let's make those new arrivals fall in love with this city and these colours immediately, particularly the young ones. We are and we always will be Roma."

One of those newcomers this summer is Edin Dzeko, who is already enthusiastic about his new adventure in Italy.

"When I was a kid everyone used to watch Serie A -- it was the best league and the most interesting," he said at a news conference. "It went down a bit over the years and people starting following other leagues but Italian football is on the up again now.

"Things are changing with new stadiums being built. Hopefully Serie A can return to its former glory again in the next few years."

He hopes to be part of it too, despite only arriving on an initial one-year loan deal from Manchester City.

"There's a stronger squad now and we want to try and win things," he added. "To do that we all have to stick together.

"Roma have a big project for the future with some fantastic players. I'm very happy to be here and to help the club reach their targets."

^ Back to Top ^