Il Capitano

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Stadio Olimpico, Rome. This modern day Colosseum, where the gladiators are substituted by football mercenaries; where the battle for life and death is swapped for a fight to kick the ball behind enemy lines; and where the reward for victory is no longer your precious life, but fame, glory, and obscene amounts of Euro.

This day AS Roma is hosting Siena. A small group of dedicated opponent fans occupy a small section of the stadium. An equal or larger amount of policemen are surrounding them. Seemingly a waste of resources, as no one appears to pay any attention to this little click of people, even though they do their best to make themselves heard. To no avail though. The group is too small, and the stadium too large. And soon the infamous Curva Sud is filling up.

Curva Sud is where the most dedicated fans to AS Roma reside during the games. Even this day when the arena is half filled at best, this section behind one of the goals is filled to the brim. They know how to make themselves heard, they know the game, and they know their team. They know their leader.

A few minutes before kickoff, the Roma lineup is presented on the two huge monitors. For each player, the crowd cheers. Ten players are presented. Then silence. The screen goes black. After a few dramatic seconds the speaker speaks up again. Naturally in Italian, but I would imagine that it goes something like this: “And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, the man we have all been waiting for, the man that will once again lead us to victory, our hero, the son of the city…”…and then another brief second of silence (for the dramatic effect)…the speaker raises his voice…”Il Capitano!” - Our Captain…”Francesco”…this is where the speaker stops and the crowd takes over…TOTTI!!! they cheer in a more or less uniform voice.

The Roma fans love their Francesco Totti. Their captain. The son of Rome. Faithful to his club throughout his career. They don’t care that during the game he runs less than a hibernating sloth and produces less than a trawler in Switzerland. He is the Captain. Untouchable.

The match progresses. Very slowly so. Typical Italian scenario; the away team defends, the home team attacks until they score one goal. Roma scores their goal, and Siena does little to upset the balance. No one remembers who scored the goal. But Totti was there somewhere. Once again the Captain has delivered another win, once again the Captain has pleased his crowd.

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