Francesco Totti's yearlong sabbatical from Italy's national team has turned into permanent retirement.
The 30-year-old AS Roma playmaker announced on Friday he will not return for Italy because his body can't support playing for both club and country anymore.
"To continue playing at this level I have to give something up, unfortunately," Totti said during a news conference at Roma's training center. "I can't play 50 to 60 games a year anymore."
PHOTO: AFP
Totti broke his left leg and strained ligaments in his ankle while playing for Roma in February last year. He played all of last season with a metal rod and about 10 support screws inside his left ankle.
He also had back trouble last season.
"I've made this decision for various physical reasons and not technical," Totti said. "I'm very sorry but it's the best thing for me because my health is most important."
Italy team manager Luigi Riva recalled how Totti hurried back from surgery to make the World Cup squad.
"We should just thank him for what he's done for Italy, the sacrifice he made to be present at the World Cup," Riva said. "After the injury we were all worried, because all he needed was a slight twist to create another serious injury. Francesco leaves with his head held high."
Totti hasn't played for the Azzurri since the World Cup final against France last year. He said after the World Cup that he needed to take a break from the national team to let his ankle heal.
Totti denied reports that he had offered to return on a part-time basis, a proposal Italian media said had been rejected by the Italian soccer federation.
"I've never asked to play part time," Totti said. "Roma and my health are my priorities."
Totti formed a special bond with Marcello Lippi when the former Italy coach visited him in his hospital room after surgery. Lippi told Totti he would keep his position open on the World Cup roster.
"That's not something you forget," Totti said. "I had a special relationship with Lippi. He's someone you can trust."
Lippi resigned after the World Cup and Totti has never played for current Italy coach Roberto Donadoni.
"I can't judge Donadoni because we've never been together for two days," Totti said. "But we have a good relationship on the telephone."
Totti said he informed Donadoni of his decision several days ago.
Asked if he might consider replicating how Zinedine Zidane retired from France's team and then returned to help the team qualify for the World Cup, Totti left it open.
"If I lose my head one day and they still want me you never know," he said. "But right now this is my decision."
INJURY TURMOIL: Despite stunning French Open champions Paolini and Errani to advance, Chan was forced to pull out after her partner’s tearful women’s singles defeat Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign. Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two
Real Madrid’s FIFA Club World Cup quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund had taken three crazy turns during nine minutes of second-half stoppage time when Marcel Sabitzer chested the ball and sent a right-footed volley toward Thibaut Courtois’ post. Courtois leapt to his right, extended the long arm on his 2m frame and just managed to get his gloved fingertips on the ball, knocking it down. Courtois hit the ground as the ball bounded up. He looked skyward, planted his right hand to regain his balance, grabbed the ball with both hands on the second bounce and fell onto it with his chest. Sabitzer turned
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus’ four-year suspension for doping, ruling that her positive test for a banned substance was caused by kissing her then-boyfriend, American fencer Race Imboden. Thibus, a silver medalist in team foil at the Tokyo Games, had tested positive for ostarine, a prohibited muscle-building substance, during a competition in Paris in January last year. However, CAS concluded there was no intentional wrongdoing, finding it scientifically plausible that repeated kissing over several days with Olympic medalist Imboden — who was taking ostarine at the time — led to accidental contamination. The court
‘SU-PENKO’: Hsieh and Ostapenko face a rematch against their Australian Open final opponents, the same duo Hsieh played in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday survived a near upset to the unseeded duo of Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, setting up a semi-final showdown against last year’s winners. Despite losing a hard-fought opening set 7-6 (7/4) on a tiebreak, the fourth seeds turned up the heat, losing just five games in the final two sets to handily put down Cirstea and Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2. Nicknamed “Su-Penko,” the pair are next to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in a reversal of last
RSS