Roma’s owner & president Thomas DiBenedetto has commented on various issues regarding his club at the Leaders in Football conference at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge ground.
“I am a great admirer of Francesco and I have been extremely pleased with how hard he has been working,” he told reporters.
It’s not unusual to hear the club’s owner extolling the virtues of their club’s greatest ever player but things were different just a few weeks ago when Di Benedetto backed his new coach Luis Enrique in a row with Totti regarding his position in the team.
The saying goes ‘No player is bigger than the club’ but then no player is bigger or has done more for Roma their history than Francesco Totti.
It’s fair to say that despite the glowing tributes from Di Benedetto to Totti their relationship has not got off to the best start, due mainly to the spat between Totti and Enrique at the start of the season.
A couple of victories under the belt though and everything in theEternalCity’s garden appears rosy again.
“The growth of the team has been especially pleasing. The players have taken to Enrique’s style of hard work and team play. Everybody from Francesco Totti down has worked very hard. Francesco has probably worked harder than anybody. Unfortunately, he is out [injured] right now” continued the American.
“Anybody who watched the last couple of matches saw how hard he was playing for nearly 90 minutes and that was very impressive. That set a very good example for a lot of the younger players, who have also been working very hard.“
Whilst singing the praises of il Capitano he also commented on the forthcoming Rome derby on the 16th October, his first as owner.
“Obviously, Rome-Lazio is special,” he explained. “The other day (sporting director) Walter Sabatani asked me did I understand what Roma-Lazio was. He said, ‘What can you compare it to?’ I said, ‘a civil war’.
“I think it is a match between two teams this year who are both very good and extremely competitive. We hope to win, I know both teams will play very hard and it will be very exciting.”
Nothing wrong with his knowledge about theRomederby then. A civil war is pretty much about right!! In fact it makes Julius Caesar and Pompey The Great’s disagreement look like a minor spat in comparison!!
Di Benedetto was full of compliments and praise for not only his captain but also his new coach.
After two back-to-back wins in Serie A the pressure has eased some what on Luis Enrique and the owner is looking forward to what will come from his team with the Spaniard in charge.
“I was always confident about Luis Enrique. I believe that Luis is someone who is a tremendous competitor, extremely intelligent and very hard working who demands no more from his players than he gives himself. I believe in Luis, so that hasn’t changed at all.”
Part of the project at Roma is to turn the club into a world famous name to sit alongside Manchester United, Liverpool, Real Madrid & Barcelona with fans from all over the world.
“Rome is a city which has universal acceptance and recognition. Most people in the world study about Rome, so it is a name they are familiar with. The historical preservation of the city means it is a place that people come and visit. Virtually everybody in the world one day wants to visit Rome.
“We believe that gives us an advantage to be able to reach out to them. Also, Rome, uniquely, has the most embassies of any city in the world, with the Vatican, Italy and the United Nations. Those people – the diplomats who come toRome– we would like to make them Roma fans so that when they go back to their countries they will become our diplomats.”
In terms of recent speculation regarding a move away from the Stadio Olimpico or a renavation of the ground, Di Benedetto offerd the following thoughts:
“I don’t think it is possible for us to redevelop Olimpico. It is an Olympic stadium and hopefully it will host the 2020 Olympics. I’m sure that there will be a lot of refurbishments to Olimpico.
“We believe we need a new football stadium that has its fans close to the pitch and where the energy of the fans gets transferred to the players. I believe that really does result in an advantage to the home team because those players, when they feel that energy late in the match when their legs are tired, it gets their adrenaline going and allows them to continue to compete.”
So the future of Roma seems secure and under the leadership of Thomas Di Benedetto the good times should be just around the corner.
Roma supporters can be very hard to please but if his plans come off then a new glorious chapter in Rome’s history may just have begun and even the legend Er Pupone wouldn’t grumble at that.
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Roma, American style. loving it. Foreign money seemed to help in the EPL. Glazers at man u as much as the fans hate it but it works.
why lose vucinic, menez, and mexes?? need to rebuild quickly. maybe 100 to 150 million euros to build a top 5 contender. i’d like to see giuseppe rossi up at trequartista and not as striker as prandelli keeps forcing him to be.
anyway, forza roma!