Friday, November 9, 2012

Roma All Time Best

Guido Masetti (1929-43) - Roma have never had a truly world-class goalkeeper, so the choice came down between Masetti, and Franco Tancredi who won the Serie A title in 1983. Masetti played for Roma his whole career, making 339 league appearances. He was an important element in Roma's first-ever Scudetto success in 1942, while he also picked up two World Cup winners medals as a non-playing squad member for Italy in 1934 and 1938. Cafu (1997-2003) - One of Brazil's all-time great wing-backs who was nicknamed Il Pendolino (The Express Train) due to his indefatigable ability to run up and down the flank continuously for 90 minutes. Cafu played over 100 times in Serie A for Roma and was a key factor in their Scudetto success in 2001. He was also a star in international football, playing at four world cups and three successive World Cup finals, two of which he won. He is the most capped Brazilian player of all-time and has won every major club honour in the game. Giacomo Losi (1954-69) - One of the Giallorossi's first real heroes, Losi earned his nickname Core de Roma (Heart of Rome) in 1961 when he played on against Sampdoria with the scores level at 2-2, despite being heavily injured. Heroically Losi scored with 10 minutes remaining and Roma won 3-2. A tough defender, who won 11 caps for Italy and played at the 1962 World Cup, Losi held the Roma appearance record for more than 38 years after he retired. Aldair (1990-2003) - Brazil have never been blessed with too many great centre-backs over the years, however Aldair was one of them. In 13 superb seasons at the club he made 415 appearances, winning the Scudetto in 2001 under Fabio Capello. Tall, strong and stylish, Aldair won 93 caps for the Brazil national team, playing at Italia 90', USA 94' and France 98', picking up a winners medal in the States. After he left Roma at the age of 37, the club retired his No.6 shirt in his honour. Sebastiano Nela (1981-92) - Versatile left-sided defender, who made 395 appearances in 11 years at the club. Nela was part of Roma's greatest ever team under Nils Liedholm in the early 1980s, a squad that won the 1983 Scudetto and lost to Liverpool on penalties in the final of the European Cup the following year. Due to the abundance of world-class Italian defenders around during his time-period, he was only capped five times by the Azzurri, although he was part of the 1986 World Cup squad who disappointed in Mexico. Agostino Di Bartolomei (1972-84) - One of the biggest crimes in the history of Calcio was that Di Bartolomei never played for Italy. A skilful playmaker, who dictated the tempo of the game, 'Ago' was tall, elegant, and had fantastic vision and technical ability. He would regularly hit pinpoint 60-yard passes to a team-mate's feet and would spot through-balls that most other players did not know existed. His style of play was in some ways similar to Andrea Pirlo today. Di Bartolomei played 308 games for Roma, scoring 66 goals, and captaining them to the Scudetto in 1983. He tragically committed suicide in 1994 at the age of 39. Falcao (1980-85) - Roma turned down the chance to sign Zico in 1980 and the whole world laughed. They weren't laughing for long however as Falcao (pictured above with Bruno Conti) soon showed himself to be possibly the most complete midfielder in world football during the early 1980s. Falcao was like a general on the field, brilliant tactically and technically, he was nicknamed the 'Eighth King of Rome'. He won the Scudetto in 1983, while he also excelled for Brazil, playing in their legendary 1982 World Cup team. Indeed he scored in the classic 3-2 defeat to Italy during that tournament in Spain. Giuseppe Giannini (1982-96) - Before Francesco Totti the symbol of Roma was Giannini. Like Totti, this midfielder, turned down the big-money advances of the top teams to stay with his beloved hometown club. A brilliant playmaker with wonderful technique, he made over 400 appearances for Roma, scoring 75 goals. Sadly the years when he was at his peak coincided with a lean spell for the Giallorossi. He played 47 times for the Italian national team, and was a key player at Italia 90', scoring during the group game against the U.S.A. Bruno Conti (1973-90) - Quite probably Italy's greatest winger of all-time, Conti, aside from two loan spells at Genoa in his formative years, spent his entire career with Roma. He made over 300 Serie A appearances for the club, winning the Scudetto in 1983. An incredibly skilful and tricky wideman, Conti would run rings around the most accomplished of defenders. His career high-point was in the 1982 World Cup when he was undoubtedly in my eyes the player of the tournament. He provided numerous assists during the competition, including the final goal for Alessandro Altobelli in the 3-1 final win over West Germany. Roberto Pruzzo (1978-88) - Absolutely prolific goal-scorer, who was Capocannoniere in the Italian league three times during the 1980s. In total he scored 106 goals in 240 league games, including 12 during the 1983 Scudetto-winning campaign. The moustached Pruzzo once hit five goals in a match, during a 5-1 league win over Avellino in 1985/86. He was also a protagonist in Europe, hitting a vital double against Dundee Utd in the 1984 European Cup semi-final. In the subsequent final against Liverpool, he scored Roma's equaliser, however he would go on to pick up a losers medal following a penalty shoot-out defeat. Francesco Totti (1993-) - Symbolic Roma hero who made his debut for the club as a 16-year-old way back in 1993. Almost 15 years later, he is still the focal point of the side and a Roma team without Totti is almost unthinkable. Er Pupone is now the Giallorossi's record appearance-maker and all-time highest goal-scorer, and at the age of 31 he still has a fair few years left in his legs. Club captain Totti was one of the key members of the 2001 Scudetto success and when he does eventually retire he is likely to be remembered as Roma's greatest ever player.



























Thursday, November 8, 2012

As Roma 2000 - 2001

Francesco Totti is a great name in football. Everyone knows about him. He was born in Rome, Italy on 27 September 1976. His height is 5ft and 11 inches. He is the team member of world cup wining team of Italy. He likes to play as striker or an attacking midfielder and he is famous as second striker. He is currently the captain of the famous series A football club named Roma. Totti has played through out his career for Roma. He is known as the top goal scorer in the history of Roma club. He is the finest player in present time and top footballer of his club. Totti is the winner of many individual awards. He has made record of winning five times the Italian footballer of the year award and two times the Series A footballer of the year award. He was chosen as the one of the top 125 footballers and he is on sixth position in league history by scoring 192 goals. Now talk about his early career, as all knows he born in Rome and grown up there. He started to play football from very little age. He used to play with older boys. He got offer from AC Milan but due to his mother he refused to join because they want him to stay in their hometown. Afterword in 1989 he become the part of Roma youth squad. Totti gave his best performance at Roma youth squad and after three years at the age of 16 he played for Roma senior side. It was the chance given by the coach Vujadin Boskov in the game against Brescia in the year 1993. After that game he was given many chances to play serious games and at last he scored his first goal in the game 1-1 draw against the team Foggia. After being successful in that season Totti played many games and made his position in starting eleven. In next 3 seasons he became the prominent player after scoring 16 goals. He was chosen as team captain in 1997. Totti played for 2 years under Zeman's managerial stint and scored 30 goals. Zeman used to play with offensive formation of 4-3-3 in which position of Totti was left winger. Unfortunately Totti did not play in 1998 FIFA world cup but he was awarded the title of Series A young footballer of the season 1998-1999. He was also awarded the title of Italian footballer of the year 2000 and 2001. In next season Totti played as second striker in 3-5-2 formation and scored his career best 20 goals in season 2003-04 in Scudetto race. In year 2005-06 club Roma got new coach Luciano Spalleti. He used to play with 4-3-2-1 formation. In this formation Totti played as attacking midfielder and scored 15 goals in 24 games. After difficult time on Roma club in year 2009 Spalleti resigned and his position was taken by Claudio Ranieri. Totti continued to play in his managerial stint. Totti stepped in his international career, when he was playing UEFA youth tournament under 21 and won it in 1996. On 10 October 1998, he earned his first cap during Euro 2000 qualifying games, when he defeated Switzerland and made Italy to qualify for Euro 2000. In Euro 2000 he played very well and scored 2 goals, one against Belgium and second against Romania. World cup 2002 was not proved to be successful for Totti and it brought disappointment to him. Euro 2004 was also not good tournament for Totti because he was banned until semi-finals and later on Italy was eliminated in first round. In 2006 world cup Totti contributed a lot in the victory of Italy and at last Italy won the world cup. After that great victory Totti officially announced his retirement on 20 July 2007. Francesco Totti is surely the great player in the history of Football.