What May is going to miss

(and the rest of the world too)

Don't be alarmed. This post is about football. But you're going to like it. At least, I think so. Because it involves Chanel. And Italy. And that makes it fun anyway.

Just read it for a moment. And later flash your acquired football facts to your loved one or your father. Yesterday, Francesco Totti played his last match. And Francesco and I go way back.

To be precise, fourteen years ago. My loved one and I had a scandalously affordable apartment, I had a little money because I sold my previous house at a big profit, and my loved one had worked his butt off and was also a bit out of work, so before I knew it, we were living in Rome. Here By the way, do you find the best tips for when you go to Rome for the first time. On Via Giovanni Lanza with a view of the Colosseum. As true Romanisti, we bought a black Vespa and yes, we went to the Stadio Olimpico every two weeks. Among a crowd of other Romanisti, we moved towards the holy place. I smiled at boys waving flags of their club. All dressed in a red-yellow (giallorosso, the colors of the club) shirt of Rome with 10 Totti on it, the star player of AS Roma.

‘Do you cheer for us?’ the Romans asked happily as we took our usual stadium seats. Yes, we are for you. We studied the club song (‘Roma, Roma Roma, cuora de sta citta, unica grande amore che tante e tante gente hai fatto suspira’. Roughly translated: Roma, heart of this city, unique great love that gives so many people oxygen) and sang it along at the appropriate volume.

On Sundays, we followed Totti on the field, and on other days, I dived into his life by buying Chi, a delightful Italian gossip magazine that I bought under the pretense of ‘I need to learn the language’. My loved one dived into biographies and told me the beautiful story of little Francesco who was scouted for Lazio Roma, also known as the other club, or the arch-enemy. Two men from Lazio Roma stood in suits at the door of the Totti family's apartment in the Roman district of Trastevere. ‘We are interested in your son.’ When his mother called Francesco, she couldn't find him anywhere. He had hidden under the dining table. ‘I play for AS Roma and not otherwise.’

That's how it was and that's how it went. Francesco Totti (also known as ‘il bimbo d’oro’, or the golden boy and ‘il capitano’) won the 2006 World Cup with Italy and is at the top of the list of players who scored the most goals for a club in Serie A. He played 759 matches for AS Roma and scored 305 goals.

Of course, there is a woman involved. Totti married Ilary Blasi, an Italian showgirl who made it as a presenter. She bore him three children: son Cristian, daughter Chanel (seriously) and daughter Isabel. Ilary is exactly what you would expect from an Italian presenter. Since 2004, there have been a few too many injectables in my opinion, but who am I, she is still a showgirl and in Italy, they love a bit too blonde and a cup size more.

I don't want to withhold this from you either

 Many jokes were made about Totti because he was said not to be the smartest in the class. Francesco decided to turn his disadvantage into an advantage and wrote two books full of Totti jokes that my loved one and I bought as part of: if you understand Italian jokes, you speak the language.

I'll share one with you. Francesco is working on a puzzle and takes four months to complete it. When he proudly looks at his work and the box, he sees that it says 2-3 years as the age indication. ‘Then I did super well with my four months.’

The proceeds from the books go to Unicef

Yesterday was indeed his last match. Although I, unfortunately, no longer go to the Stadio Olimpico every two weeks, I will miss him. He said goodbye with the wonderfully theatrical ‘I was born in Rome and I will die in Rome.’ I hope to enjoy a lot more of him and Ilary, her lips, and of course daughter Chanel in the meantime. Because the Totti family is simply royalty.