Totti: "Spalletti didn’t behave particularly well with me. We’ll make peace if..."

The ideal conditions for peace between me and Luciano Spalletti are taking shape, day by day. Let's say we've started down a path beyond the silence that had existed. I won't repeat here where our rupture came from, even the Martians know. What came afterwards is interesting.

On 28 May 2017, the day of my forced retirement, and for more than six years after that, we neither saw nor heard from each other again. Neither of us felt the need for the other. Our paths split. In November 2023, something began to move.

I got a call from Vito Scala, my lifelong friend. "Fra, do you know Italy play North Macedonia in Rome on the 17th?" "Yeah, so?" "A delegation from the national team are going to visit the Bambino Gesù." That's the paediatric hospital where, from time to time and without telling anyone, I drop in to say hello to the very young patients.

"Good for them." "Well, Fra, you should go too." "Why, Vito?" "Because it'll be a lovely moment. Federation president Gabriele Gravina will be there, your friend Gigi Buffon, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Angelo Peruzzi is coming too. And...". "And?" "And the Italy head coach." That is, Luciano Spalletti. "No." I wanted nothing to do with it. "Fra, think about it...".

And I did think about it. I realised it's fine to be selfish, to protect yourself from pain and hide your wounds, but not at the expense of others. "Vito, okay." You turn a blind eye and listen to your heart. You try to put what happened to one side for a noble cause.

So I accepted the invitation. Sooner or later, it was bound to happen. The world of football is small. Either I say hello to him, or I crack him one on the head. I got there before him that day. On my scooter. I walked into the entrance hall. In the middle of all that chaos, Vito turned serious: "They’re arriving."

I was wearing a leather jacket, he was in a dark suit. President Gravina played the charmer: "This is Luciano Spalletti…". And I have to say, he found the right words to lighten the mood: "From the heart side, shall I give you a hug? From the heart side, there we go…". A quick high five. A hug. It was a fleeting gesture, nothing more.

Inside, I felt nothing. It still was not love. A tremor, or a shiver, nothing at all. Then I saw him again at the Olimpico in Rome, on 14 May 2025, the Coppa Italia final won by Bologna against AC Milan. "How are you?". "All good, and you?". "Fine, thanks". "Bye". "Bye". The usual things, without any feeling. Then, gone. 

Then Damiano Biondi got in touch with a proposal. "They want you for the Amaro Montenegro advert." "Nice." "Okay. Then they tell me it would be really nice if you shot it with...". "With?" "With Spalletti."

"Hang on, maybe there's some interference. With who?" "With Spalletti...". "No, I care about you, but I can't do it. If I meet him I'll say hello out of respect, out of politeness, but I really can't manage it." The truth is, deep down, something about it intrigued me.

For a month we went back and forth. I wasn't fully convinced but in the end I gave in. They chose an area of Rome everyone calls I Ponti as the location. I turned up on my scooter early in the morning. Everyone had their own camper van to get changed and do their make-up. I got out of mine and headed for Spalletti's. I knocked. "Open up, are you scared?" He came down, we hugged, something a bit more genuine than the one at Bambino Gesù.

Then he said: "Francesco, are you happy to be doing the advert with me?" "I couldn't wait. Anyway, you have to thank me, boss. If I'd said no, they wouldn't have taken you either." During a break in filming, an old lady leaned out from a balcony and shouted to Spalletti: "Oi, don't mess around with the captain, he's ours. Watch yourself. We don't forget." A sensational assist. "Boss, you really do need to watch yourself, because if I set off the ignorance here, it'll end badly." 

We worked together for two days. It helped. We relaxed, we smiled, the kind of spontaneous smiles that are not forced. I enjoyed it. I have to say I came away feeling calmer.

Then, in the summer of 2026, we shot a second one over three days at Spalletti's estate in Tuscany. One evening we found ourselves around the table with other people.

I spoke to everyone: "As a manager he was one of the best, with me he did not behave very well…".

"No, Francesco, it is all your fault, you are the one who wished me ill and drove me out of Roma".

"What are you on about, manager? You did it all by yourself".

We did not settle it there either, but the atmosphere was much friendlier. Ad after ad, we are clearing away the residue. We have started a serious process of reconciliation. When we tell each other the whole truth, nothing but the truth, I will draw a line under it once and for all. We will be able to go back to being who we were before. And after the truth, we will raise a toast to ours. Amaro Spalletti, true flavour.