Serie A: Roma Legend Francesco Totti Slams Gonzalo Higuain Over Big-Money Move To Juventus

Alan Duffy

26th, July 2016

6 Comments

Roma icon Francesco Totti has bemoaned the lack of loyalty in modern football, with Gonazalo Higuain’s €90 million move from Napoli to Juventus not impressing the 39-year-old former Italian international.

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After seeing the likes of Higuain and ex-Roma playmaker Miralme Pjanic move to Juventus in big-money deals, Totti, a man who has spent his long and glittering career with boyhood club Roma, has spoken out.

Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport. Totti said:

Modern players are a bit like nomads. They are following the money, not their heart. Not many athletes follow their heart. They decide to move elsewhere to win trophies and to earn more money.

Football has changed a lot, it is all about money now. Players change teams all the time, to make a bit more money elsewhere. It’s more about money than about passion.

People go to the stadiums to enjoy themselves and to see players in action who will always be with their team. They expect not to be betrayed.

Just look at what happened with Higuain, leaving Napoli for Juventus. It’s a disaster.

But it is apparently quite normal for a foreign player these days to just leave for another team where they can make more money. It’s a mentality problem.

Totti then referenced Diego Maradona’s successful spell in Serie A, where the Argentine superstar only played for Napoli, saying:

Not all foreigners are like (Diego) Maradona.

While Totti’s loyalty to Roma is something to be applauded, I’m not really sure if there’s anything wrong with a professional footballer looking to earn the best wage he (or she) can before their short career ends.

After all, for the players themselves, it’s only a job at the end of the day?

Posted in Serie A, Transfers & Rumours

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6 Comments

  1. Higuain says:

    Couldn’t agree more Chris, although it can be frustrating when you see a player from your own club depart it’s now the nature of the beast. Maybe the financial incentive do overweigh other factors involved, but at the end of this coming season which club is he more likely to be winning silverware with…

    Higuain doesn’t have the same affinity to Napoli which the supporters do, and hasn’t grown up supporting them. He’s been at multiple clubs so knows how the industry works.

    When he was surplus to requirements at Madrid he was transferred with probably little say in the matter other than (hypothetically) “If two clubs offer the same transfer fee, then you can choose your preferred option”. All fans have to accept that better players can leave you high & dry, because on the flip side when a player isn’t good enough for your club and is sold they don’t give a ****, they’re just another hilarious answer on a pub quiz.

    Although I do greatly admire Totti and what he has achieved at Roma, that is his club and he chose to stay. He doesn’t have to berate fellow professionals like they are Judas (take note Arsenal fans), it’s a business and part and parcel of the game.

    Simply Put – The club accepted the offer for him and it was a deal too good to turn down, as far as I am aware Higuain didn’t ask for a transfer request.

  2. Jarren says:

    I’ve always admired Benoit Assou-Ekotto’s frankness in these matters.

  3. Allan says:

    Typical romanista! Labeling the “foreigners” money-hungry. Just take a look “Italian” players switching big teams..Pirlo (Inter, Milan), Balotelli (Inter, Milan), El Shaarawy (Milan, Roma, Monaco), Destro (Roma, Milan, Bologna) . At the end of the day football is also a job, footballers are professionals.

    • Schranken says:

      Not to mention the biggest example of them all, Bobo Vieri (Juve, Lazio, Inter, Milan and many more)

  4. Kal2602 says:

    Didn’t his own team mate Pjanic just transfer to Juventus also. Where was Totti then?

  5. Tom says:

    The way I read something like this when one club players like Maldini and Giggs is well let’s say they started their career at Scunthorpe, would they have been loyal then? It’s all well and good saying ‘yeah I stayed with my club’, but when your club is challenging for the title and in the Champions League year in, year out then of course you don’t really have any reason to move! And I’m sure he was never paid badly at Roma by most people’s standards let’s face it…

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