Totti: World Cup without Italy is like Rome without Colosseum!

Totti upset by Italy’s failure to qualifyCompared Azzurri to iconic structureUnsure who will win World Cup

WHAT HAPPENED? Italy and Roma legend, Francesco Totti, has said that a World Cup without the four-time champions is like “Rome without the Colosseum”. Totti, who won the most coveted trophy in football in 2006, will still follow the tournament but “in a different way”.

WHAT THEY SAID: “It’s unusual and, for we Italians, is more than negative,” he said in an interview with Sky Sport Italia. “We’ll follow the World Cup in a different way, but it remains a competition with great teams.”

When asked who he thought would come out on top, Totti responded, “France, Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Spain [are among the candidates], but there isn’t a real favourite. Anything can happen at a World Cup and playing until December, you don’t know the fitness level of players.”

IN A PHOTO:

Totti and his Italian team-mates celebrating their World Cup win in 2006…

And a very different mood for Italy earlier this year.

WHAT NEXT FOR ITALY? Missing out on the World Cup wasn’t supposed to be in the script for the Italian national side, especially after their Euro 2020 win. Head coach Roberto Mancini has embraced youth since their failure to qualify, and with young players like Sandro Tonali, Alessandro Bastoni and Giacomo Rasporadi, they’ll hope they make the next one.