When Francesco Totti scored for the first time in seven months against Chievo on Sunday, he lifted up his jersey to show a T-Shirt on which the cheeky but sincere slogan “Sorry for the delay” was written. The Roma ultras congregated behind the goal in the Curva Sud are hoping that it won’t be much longer before Daniele De Rossi relays the same message regarding the renewal of his contract at the club.
Thought a future captain of AS Roma, Italian international Daniele de Rossi is months away from being out of contract with the only club he's known. (Photo Credit: Claudio Villa/Getty Images)
Walking off the pitch to be replaced by Leandro Greco after 79 minutes, De Rossi was treated to a standing ovation from the supporters. He later downplayed it, dismissing claims that the prolonged applause was an expression of their desire to see him stay, but rather it was because he was substituted for the first time in two years and that they would probably afford him a similar gesture if he were to go off more regularly.
Don’t let that fool you, though. This felt different. With only four months remaining on his existing deal, there is a genuine fear that the player born in Rome, raised a Romanista and nicknamed “Er Capitano Futuro” (to indicate his anointment as the eventual successor to Totti) will make the wrenching decision to leave rather than lead the club at the end of this season.
De Rossi did little to ease the fans’ concerns after the game with a cryptic comment about his current situation. “I have a very clear sense of what I want to do,” he told reporters. “I am aware of what is being said and what isn’t being said. In this city, a word or a comma out of place can provoke what I don’t want to provoke. But since there is unbelievable media attention, I prefer not to talk and to keep working. I don’t live to be on the front pages of the papers or on Sky Italia.”
That’s quite frankly impossible in Rome, where the spotlight is so intense. There’s a daily paper, Il Romanista, devoted entirely to the club; a sports broadsheet, Il Corriere dello Sport, based in the city along with three nationals: La Repubblica, Il Messaggero and Il Tempo. Then there are at least three radio stations that talk Roma from dawn ‘til dusk and half a dozen local TV channels that give airtime to programs on events at the club’s training ground Trigoria.
Things are routinely blown out of proportion, manipulated and misinterpreted, which in turn can lead to over-reaction and hostility from the fans. De Rossi is right to be cautious. Throughout his career at Roma, he has tried to keep a low profile, although not always with success, because when he does talk to the media he engages fully and speaks his mind on a wide range of issues, some personal, others political.
Having become tabloid fodder on previous occasions, de Rossi has kept quiet during uncertain times, giving few answers as to his future with Roma. (Photo Credit: Paul Gilham/Getty Images)
Take, for instance, the time in 2008 when he dedicated the two goals he scored for Italy against Georgia to his then father-in-law who had been found shot dead in an execution suspected to have been carried out by the criminal underworld. Or the time in 2010 when he said he was against the new tessera del tifoso, a fan passport introduced to curb crowd violence that inadvertently led to ordinary innocent fans feeling like they were being grouped together with hooligans, and in some cases unfairly targeted by the forces of order.
Gaining tenure
Despite increased turnover at AS Roma, there is still a core of players in the squad leftover from the days of Lucianno Spalletti, though no player's tenure approaches that of Francesco Totti's.
| Player | Arrival |
|---|---|
| Francesco Totti | March 1993 |
| Daniele de Rossi | October 2001 |
| Simone Perotta | August 2004 |
| Leandro Greco | May 2005 |
| Aleandro Rosi | May 2005 |
| Rodrigo Taddei | June 2005 |
| Stefano Okaka | September 2005 |
| David Pizarro | August 2006 |
| Marco Cassetti | September 2006 |
| Cicinho | August 2007 |
| Juan | September 2007 |
Held up as a bad example by government ministers and police chiefs, De Rossi, while unrepentant in the former incident (and with some justification), did learn a lesson. Media storms, even if they don’t “frighten me,” as he claimed on Sunday, are best avoided, and in this most delicate of situations he recognizes there’s a need to show a diplomat’s flair for picking his words carefully and correctly.
The reasons why are all too obvious. If De Rossi were to go public with his demands, he would risk exposing himself to being called a mercenary. By the same token, if he were to say he was flattered by interest from other clubs, he would leave himself open to being labeled a traitor.
Silence is golden, at least while negotiations are ongoing. It won’t stop the speculation, but it will limit any inflammation that might prove unsettling and hamper contract talks further. This is the line that the club has taken too.
“We talk too much about it as it is and have to learn to keep quiet,” Roma’s general manager Franco Baldini told Il Corriere dello Sport on December 3. “All I’ll tell you is that, as a player, but above all as a person, he is the kind of person we need. We’re talking about a player for whom clubs all over the world have an appetite and who only has months left on his contract. He is an intelligent person at the height of his career, tempted by thousands of offers, all of which are legitimate. This is the difficulty.”
Both parties, it seems, are approaching negotiations like adults, but that doesn’t mean the situation hasn’t been mishandled either, particularly by Roma. “With players of this level, it’s a shame to get to a situation where they’re at the end of their contract,” coach Luis Enrique said at the weekend. “They ought to have renewed a long time ago, but I am convinced [that he will stay] all the same.”
The question, though, is this: How did Roma allow themselves to drop (or take their eye off) the ball with regard to De Rossi? Why is one of the club’s most symbolic players in a position where he can walk away for free in the summer?
