Roma President Jim Pallotta donates €230,000 to fix a fountain after jumping in to one last night – “don’t jump in a fountain unless you want to fix it…”
The American owner was overcome with joy after beating Barcelona in the Champions League last night, and was filmed taking a dunk in one of the city’s fountains.
Roma President Jim Pallotta donates €230,000 to fix a fountain after jumping in to one last night – “don’t jump in a fountain unless you want to fix it…”
The American owner was overcome with joy after beating Barcelona in the Champions League last night, and was filmed taking a dunk in one of the city’s fountains.
Today he went to meet with mayor Virginia Raggi to discuss the new stadium, and also made a generous gesture.
“I want to thank the mayor for my well-deserved fountain fine of €450…” Pallotta joked after the meeting.
“I certainly got caught up in the excitement, it was a great night for all of us in Rome. But I also don’t want to encourage other people to jump into fountains, except if they want to fix a fountain.
“So I’ve decided that I think it would be a great personal gesture to fix the fountain in front of the pantheon and so I’m going to donate €230,000 to it.
“As I said, trying not to encourage people, love this city, and if you do want to jump in in then fix the fountain.”
Pallotta also discussed last night’s Champions League win over Barcelona.
“I was very happy, [CEO] Mauro [Baldissoni] will tell you that when we drew Barcelona I thought that was a great pick for us.
“I knew that most people in the world thought that we would lose, so we had nothing to lose and I felt we had a great chance.
“Doing what we did yesterday showed what the team is made of in taking down Barcelona, and the team played 94 minutes of an incredible game, it wasn’t like it was lucky.
“So I really don’t care who we play, I think we can play against anybody, certainly with what we showed yesterday.
“So we’ll draw who we draw on Friday and I’m just to a couple more games, and I hope everyone in Rome is too. It’s a nice little ride.”
#Roma president, James Pallotta, throwing himself in the fountain of Piazza del Popolo with fans going crazy pic.twitter.com/ErY9rzZuJJ
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) April 10, 2018