After being associated with Roma for 30 years, club legend Francesco Totti has ended his professional relationship with the Giallorossi, suggesting that death would be easier to cope with than the circumstances under which he left.
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The Italy icon joined the Roma board in 2017 when he hung up his playing boots after an incredible career with the Roman club.
Since then, Totti's relationship with the board has taken strain, especially after sporting director Monchi left and manager Eusebio Di Francesco was fired earlier this year.
The 42-year-old has now launched a scathing attack on Roma's hierarchy, claiming the American owners are taking the club away from its core values.
"I never had the chance to express myself. I was never involved in a genuine technical project," he said in a press conference, according to BBC Football.
"In the first year, that can happen. In the second, I realised what I wanted to do and we never got together, never helped each other.
"They knew my intentions and what I wanted, to give so much to this club and team, but they never wanted me to, in all honesty. They excluded me from every decision.
"I will now take other paths. At the moment, another club owner wants to trust in me, I'll always be ready. I am not here to point the blame towards one or the other. We had started a journey, it was not respected, so I am moving on.
"Everyone knows they made me stop playing. I had a six-year contract already as a director. I started quietly, realising it's a completely different sphere to being on the field. Many promises were made and they were never kept.
"The main focus of certain people has been to remove Romans from Roma. Over the last eight years, since the Americans came in, they tried in every possible way to shove us to one side.
"As the years went on, they tried everything they could… It's what they wanted and in the end, they succeeded.
"What I can say is that I will never hurt Roma. This is far worse than retiring as a player. Leaving Roma is like dying. I feel like it'd be better if I died."
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Totti, who is widely considered to be Roma's best player ever, made 785 appearances for the club, scoring 307 goals along the way.
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