Best Player In The World?

When Pele says at a FIFA Press Conference that he's the best player in the world and Michel Platini seconds the motion you'd be mistaken for thinking they were talking about Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, Zidane or even the boy Rooney - but they weren't.

They were talking about a player who many football supporters in England don't rate, somebody for whom the phrase 'goes missing' could have been invented. The player whose inspirational displays won the UEFA Under-18 and Under-21 Tournaments for his country. The player who famously silenced the huge Dutch support in the semi-final of Euro 2000 by chipping his penalty into the right hand corner whilst Edwin van De Sar dived to the left and who, despite being on the losing side in the final against France, was named the Man of The Match.

After that, it was all downhill as they say, sent-off in the 2002 World Cup for 'simulation' against South Korea and then sent off at Euro 2004 for spitting at Christian Poulsen of Denmark.

Totti plays in the hole behind the front two, Gilardino and Toni probably, but rather than wait for the ball to arrive he goes looking for it in a similar way to Johann Cruyff in the famous Ajax and Holland sides. His main weakness at International level has been his goalscoring, he has managed only 8 goals in 49 games before this weeks friendlies - Christian Vieri scored 23 in the same number of games, whilst Del Piero has 25 in 72 and Bobby Baggio (the divine ponytail) managed 27 in 56 games playing much the same role as Totti for most of his career.

I personally would love to see him have a great tournament, it would mean that forwards rather than defenders are catching the eye, because I do believe he is a world class player. Also, despite some of his antics on the field, he seems to be a genuine bloke, he allowed two books containing jokes about himself to be published to raise money for UNICEF and is a roving footballing ambassador for that organisation. Totti's only input on the joke books was that none of them should be offensive about his wife and children, he was fair game himself. This is one of the more topical ones:

A journalist asks Totti: "Francesco, your prediction over a possible encounter between America and Iraq."
Totti replies, "Well, I'd say they're two beautiful nations... well-prepared, but as everyone knows, only one can qualify for the World Cup."

Italy are in Group E with Ghana, Czech Republic and USA and they will want to win the group to avoid Brazil in the Round of 16.