Antonio Cassano said Francesco Totti ‘will be forgotten’ but Giancarlo Rinaldi fears Fantantonio risks being remembered more for his antics than for what he did on the pitch.

Mark Twain once said it was better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you were a fool than open it and remove all doubt. Another great mind – my Scottish granny – used to say that if you can’t say anything nice, you shouldn’t say anything at all. Both of them might have had words with Antonio Cassano over his ill-judged outburst about Francesco Totti.

If you missed it, the boy from Bari was giving his thoughts about Roma fans jeering Luciano Spalletti when he turned his attention to his old pal. His view was that supporters of the Giallorossi should have treated their former coach with more respect given what he achieved at the club. That might have been just about digestible if he hadn’t then weighed in on Il Capitano. In 20 years, he opined, the legend of the capital would be forgotten.

At a generous interpretation, perhaps, there was some truth in what he said. Totti never enjoyed – until very late in his career – the global recognition that his talent deserved. Cassano was probably correct to say he was not on the same level as Diego Maradona or Lionel Messi. But, in terms of the history of Roma and wider Italian football, this was a more ill-timed intervention than any he ever made in his playing career.

Cassano: ‘Totti will be forgotten, only Messi, Maradona, Cruijff are eternal’

The tifosi, of course, have not been slow to stick the boot in. For them, the talented but inconsistent Antonio has already been forgotten and was unfit to even discuss a legend of the game. On that front, in fairness, it would be hard to disagree. If Totti left deep footprints in football’s snowdrift, Cassano barely skimmed across the surface.

But Italy loves controversy, of course, and few are better at generating it than Fantantonio. He took a semi-valid point and ran with it in much the way he set off on a mazy run as a talented teenager at Bari against Inter. Only this time, he gloriously missed the target.

To dismiss Totti’s legacy at Roma – and in Serie A and with La Nazionale – is to display ignorance and insensitivity, which is genuinely baffling. Maybe fans of the Premiership will have forgotten him in two decades but any students of football will still have him strong in their memories. Ask Fiorentina fans if they have forgotten Giancarlo Antognoni, Milan fans Gianni Rivera, or Interisti Giacinto Facchetti. There are stars and then there are the Bandiere – the players who become an emblem of their team. Nobody should dismiss them in a hurry. Not even Cassano who joined Real Madrid in January 2006 after rejecting a contract extension offer from Roma.

Cassano taunts Ronaldo: ‘CR7 is not even top 5 in history’

There is a debate to be had, for sure, about Spalletti’s legacy in the capital and how tainted it has been by his relationship with his talismanic star. However, the manner in which it was handled was typical of Antonio’s Cassanate – the crazy and calamitous blunders, both on and off the pitch, he mixed in with his brilliant play. Like so many of those capers, he could probably have spared us this one.

The truth, perhaps, is that like so many stars who have faded from the game, Cassano craved the attention he misses after his playing days. This kind of statement – outrageous as it is – only gives them some oxygen of publicity that they no longer enjoy. With hindsight, possibly, even the man in question might have chosen his words more carefully.

Anybody with an ounce of knowledge of football would know that Totti’s significance for his club and Calcio will endure for some time to come. He was never considered the greatest player in the world but he was only, surely, a step or two down from that. It is a position he earned over two decades of glorious football and will certainly stand the test of time. The same could not be said of Cassano, however, who is in danger of being remembered more for his antics than any of the sublime skills he was undoubtedly capable of.

@Ginkers

8 thought on “If Totti will be forgotten…what about Roma rebel Cassano?”
  1. Gee-it’s an aptitude test, if you get past all the ad pop ups, you get to be on the team of your choice.

  2. ‘Ask Fiorentina fans if they have forgotten Giancarlo Antognoni, Milan fans Gianni Rivera, or Interisti Giacinto Facchetti.’
    Well, yes, they have forgotten them. At best they are just a name. It’s not disrespectful it’s just the world, time and media that means everything eventually evaporate into distant memory or disappear entirely. What does Pele mean to anyone? It’s just a name. To anyone under a certain age the name might not mean anything.

  3. He’s an attention-seeking clown. He’s hired in the media for clickbait purposes alone, not much else.

    A waster on the field (albeit very talented), and now doing the job many manager/player failures do – punditry.

  4. GEE – HOW DO YOU THINK THEY MAKE MONEY TO PAY FOR THE CONTENT?

    WHY DO PEOPLE THINK CONTENT SHOULD BE FREE??

    PS Football Italia – you should think about doing a subscription and charging for your content. I know it’s a novel idea but normally that’s how capitalism works. People pay for stuff. Like mortgages and rent. If I said to my landlord that rather than paying rent they could stick an ad on the side of the building, they’d stick me on the side of the building. Thanks to the tech giants who promoted the idea that everything on the internet was free (whilst they made billions).

  5. lest WE forget Cassano couldnt make up his mind if he wanted to retire or keep playing cuz no one or no club wanted him…even tho he said he still had a strong desire to play at top level.

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