OFFICIAL: FRANCESCO TOTTI SIGNS FOR JUVENTUS

By: agiamba | January 18th, 2011

Everyone could see the problems coming. Two strongheaded Romans, both stuck in their ways, the problems between Totti and Ranieri have manifested themselves several times this season. First, there was Totti’s outburst against Claudio’s “catenaccio” he practiced against Bayern Munich, and more recently, his decision to give Totti only 4-minutes of stoppage time against Sampdoria. Totti was furious, and refused to pledge his long-term allegiance to his hometown club.

“In January we must seize the opportunity, and there will be one. Because there are important players who are not able to establish themselves in their teams who will be seeking better opportunities elsewhere. I will not make names, but there are some big opportunities we must grab,” declared Juventus DS Giuseppe Marotta. Totti indicated his unhappiness at the club, “I accept everything, as I am at the disposal of the club and the coach. I am sad only when I step into the Trigoria training ground. Outside, I’m perfectly fine.” The rapport has been broken, and Marotta swooped in to sign Francesco on a free transfer signing a 30 month contract tying him to the club until 2013.

It’s no secret Juventus have been after a striker recently, with Luca Toni and Vincenzo Iaquinta out injured, Amauri generally worthless, and unfortunately, Fabio Quagliarella’s season is over. Marotta has desperately been seeking an old, experienced striker that can provide some kind of creativity, and Totti clearly fits the bill just as Toni is an old, experienced striker than can play target man.

Totti: «Juve, a dream come true»

From Roma to Juventus. Everything happened in a few hours. Francesco Totti is Juventus’ new forward and he is already at mister Del Neri’s disposal, ready to give his contribution starting from next away match vs. Sampdoria. Waiting to go down to the pitch, the scorer from Roma said his first words as a bianconero. «I’m so happy, being here is a dream come true. Juve is Juve anyway, and I did not hesitate, not even a minute, to accept their offer, even if I had to take a paycut from what I earned at Roma.» Totti is ready to face this new reality. And he is already aware of what wearing Juventus jersey means: «I’m coming here with so much enthusiasm and I’m ready for trainer’s decisions. I feel physically fine and also yesterday I played 90 minutes. In this team I know many boys and I know how deep is their victories’ hunger, otherwise they won’t be here. I so willing to win too, and keep on scoring, as I always did in my career».

An agreement for two years and a half, Totti gets to Juve after experiences in Roma. But most of all from that in giallorosso, the forward wants to take inspiration. «Last year, we started late but almost reached the Scudetto. I’d like to live this experience again so much, for this reason I hope I’ll be able to give that little luck more. Del Neri’s playing style is right for my forward characteristics, I know him from our past, that’s why I know I can do good. I’m excited to begin, as I am already good friends with many people here; Alessandro, Gianluigi, Alberto, and another Roman, Simone Pepe.»

Totti will meet up with his old friend Buffon

As well as Alex Del Piero

And Totti will be free to imitate his ex-Giallorosso teammate Alberto Aquilani

Benvenuto a Torino, Francesco.

Some Related Juventus Posts:

Category: 2010-2011, Marotta, Team News

« Transfer News: From Fabio To Floro | Home | VotD: Winter Dreams… »

Godson Hernandez

The unconvincing photoshopping gave you away, lol. Great stuff though, good thing i'm not 90, might've died from a heart attack!

btw, that shirt belongs to Krasic. He'd better not seen that pic..............
Blanda_Amania

Love that guy. He came to Guam and got busted by customs for carrying weed, haha!
Blanda_Amania

Disqus does hate Guam (that comment up there was for DJP, who I'm not allowed to talk to). :*(

Oh, I see. I'm only allowed to reply to myself today.
djp4cal

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
FORZAROMA

How many scudetto's would we have won if it wasn't for inter, Milan and especially the zebra's weren't cheating 24/7 for the past 40 years?

Roma basically most 2nd places finishes in history. Most coppa italia's in history. Imagine if calciopoli didn't exist, imagine if all the cheating in the 90's, 80's and 70's didn't exist?

Roma would be the most successful club going! Forza Roma
BAGGIO10

Correction: Roma is TIED with Juve for most Coppa wins, so you don't hold the record yourself.

2nd place finishes? who the hell brags about being first losers, its either you win or you lose and nothing else matters. You want me to come up with a stat that tells you how many 2nd and 3rd place finishes Juve has had? because i can only count on 1 hand the amount of times we didn't finish in the top 3.

Roma WOULD BE the most successful but YOU ARE NOT. Reality check here buddy, Juve went through Farsopoli and we are still the MOST SUCCESSFUL club in Italy and only 2nd behind Real Madrid who actually bought all their trophies thanks to General Franco's money.
Montella9

WRONG!

You are counting success purely to the number of trophies a team has won. Going by that measure, GLASGOW RANGERS are the most successful club in the history of football. Not Juventus! Not Real Madrid!
AlaskaJuventino

Be calm. No one is disputing that Rangers are the best club in the history of world football. I'm just glad they're not in Serie A...then we'd really have to worry. Or worse, if Juve was in the Scottish league...then we'd have the likes of Caledonian Thistle to contend with!
BAGGIO10

AlaskaJuventino FTW!
Chuks A.

Win.
jorid22

LMFAO, could you be any madder?
FORZAROMA

YOU BITCHES ARE NEXT! FORZA ROMA. FORZA IL CAPITANO
BAGGIO10

Yea we BITCHES bitches are next and we will probably lose because Roma excels at winning Coppa Italia's while Juventus aims for the scudetto's. How many trophies do Roma have again?
jorid22

THIS IS PROBABLY BULLSHIT, JUST READ IT ON VS:

An Italian journalist for Telelombardia who happens to be a Juve fan, posted this on his facebook:

"Juventus and Sampdoria have reached an agreement of 2 million Euros for Reto Ziegler. Armand Traore` will move to Sampdoria which will then have the chance to deal directly with Arsenal at the end of the season for his full purchase. Within tomorrow there will be the presentation and the signatures of the Swiss, Del Neri plans on starting him on Sunday."

He was asked questions about the deal from other Juve fans on facebook and he mentioned that although Reto seemed ready to join Milan just days ago, Antonini refused to go the other way for the exchange. According to him again, the news comes directly from inside of Sampdoria's locker room and that he knew about the move but was waiting for Doria's Coppa game to start before he'd post the news.

*When I think of it, I can find half a dozen reasons why this seems nonsensical off the top of my head but if true, it's a great move. Better get him right now and pay a measly 2 million than wait another 5 months and have to put up with Grosso's ineptitude. Interesting to notice, Ziegler's a pretty good set piece taker but today, in the pk shootout against Udinese, he was the first player to miss lol.*

Discuss
BAGGIO10

I wish this would be true but i doubt it, the part about Traore just makes this piece of news non-believable. I think once PDC comes back we will be ok and won't need a LB, hopefully he stays healthy and can show his potential.

MAROTTA you SOB get us a damn striker and get rid of "THE CURSE"
Papai

possibly linked to this http://football-italia.net/jan...
Chuks A.

It would be a dream come true, that's for sure. But some of the various complications with the deal are:
--We don't own Traore, hence doing something like this seems a bit dodgy and it'll probably take a significant amount of time to iron out something like this with Arsenal.
--First I read that Pennant is so damn gangster that he "forgot" his Porsche in Zaragoza, and then I read "Del Neri plans on starting him on Sunday [against Samp].". Yeah, like that's gonna happen.
--Just like he said here, I read about the Milan deal with Ziegler (though I didn't know Antonini was involved with it, and I don't blame him if he doesn't wanna go to Samp really) and that seemed pretty close to completion. However, I also read about Milan nearly completing a deal with Criscito, so then Ziegler's move would seem redundant unless they offload one/two of their current fullbacks (which, IMO they should really do actually...)
--So even though this would be a dream come true, it sounds too complicated (similar to how hard it was to buy Bonucci last summer) a deal to complete with so little time remaining in the window (less than 2 weeks).
PS: Your man Bogdani is turning on the style in the San Siro=) FORZA ERJON!!
jorid22

Well said, the idea of Samp selling a starter to the team they are facing in 4 days sounds hilarious to me. It's the icing on the cake.

Bogdani is the man. He has scored against both Milan AND inter so far this season.
Chuks A.

One of the few (and may it be the only) times I agree with C.Ronaldo 100%
http://english.gazzetta.it/Foo...

In other, more ridiculous news today, this will make you wonder what's happening to the world nowadays: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/...
BAGGIO10

the Cristiana Crynaldo interview is not the complete version, he also spoke about how he almost signed for Juve a few years ago but the move collapsed.
Chuks A.

Ahh I've found it and changed the above link. Thanks mate!
I guess Eurosport doesn't care about our greatness and hence don't mention us=( ooh well...
jorid22

Pennant is apparently not only an obscenely poor winger but also an idiot lol.
BAGGIO10

The only reason we know about a garbage player like him is because the english media hypes average players and makes them world class. Pennant was always trash and is nothing like most English players. Stamina and endurance is what makes them great, very little technique and brains.
dweb

From Marchisio's facebook: "25 grazie ad ognuno di voi per tutti questi bellissimi auguri che mi sono arrivati oggi e che stanno ancora arrivando!!!17 anni di juve in 25 anni di vita,con la speranza di viverne tanti altri con questa maglia.
Un abbraccio grande. Claudio" This guy is awesome! Earlier this week we had Krasic commenting that he wants to retire at Juve and now we have this. FORZA LO SPIRITO DI JUVE PER SEMPRE!
AlaskaJuventino

Translation?
JoseR

I believe it says: "25 thank-yous to each and everyone of you for these birthday wishes that I have received today and that are still arriving. 17 years of Juve in 25 years of life, with the hope of living many more with this jersey.

A big hug for everyone. Claudio" classy guy after the whole contract non-sense of last summer.
Jose P

goal.com reports Marotta interested in AZ Alkmaar and former Italy U-21 forward Pelle!!!! this is the way the website makes it sound. But in all seriousness this guy warms up their bench, so how on earth can Juve or perhaps Marotta actually be about bringing him to Turin. We go from Dzeko, to Toni, to Forlan, to Floro Flores, and now to this Pelle. For the love of god!
Highlander_mak

By the way I saw that Jesus Datolo is about to become a free agent. Has anybody seen him play? I saw some videos where he plays left midfield/winger. He could be cheap but worthy. I repeat that I haven't seen him live.
BAGGIO10

he is nothing special, would be a huge waste of money even for free
Rdj8

he sucks.
BostonBobo

I actually like Fabiano, as a loan or even a buy. He scored ALOT of goals for Brazil the past few years, and just like Melo, he rose to the top of a seemingly endless list of Brazilians to feature in the world cup. He hasn't had a great season for Sevilla, but I'm guessing it has to do with the team/strategies/motivation as opposed to his talent. I have faith in Del Neri to put him in the position to succeed, just like Aquilani etc...Sevilla wants 10M, marotta wants to give 8, give them 9M and suit up Sunday against Samp. Fabiano is exactly the type of scorer we need, just a pure poacher who can score pretty, score ugly, always in the mix. Similar to Trez actually, doesn't dominate the game but has a nose for the ball in the box. Basically the opposite of Amauri.
Robee

He is nowhere near the class of Trezeguet. Let that be clear.
BostonBobo

Agreed, I simply meant he is a similar type of player. Not a big goofy holding striker like toni/amauri, not a seconda punta like ADP/Quags, and not a speedster or skilled dribbler who will get around guys. Just a straight poacher who relies on timing and finishing.
Highlander_mak

agreed. 9 mil is peanuts
Anthony

For a player who will be 31 this year, I wouldn't say peanuts. But I understand him being signed. But he's not a replacement for Quagliarella. He's a prima punta is he not? Isn't that what Toni was brought in to play?
Findfranco

brilliant waste of time
Somnath_Sengupta

Juve linked with Cesena's Jap full-back...he is not non EU ?
ooBia

If a player is already in Italy, the non-EU rule doesn't apply. We were eligible to get Martinez and Krasic that way.

But anyways, Yuto was quite good when we played Cesena. Not sure how good he really is though..
Rinaldo2882

^Not Krasic.
ooBia

Doesn't he play RB/CB?