Friedkin targets youth academy director: Frara emerges as leading candidate

Roma arrive at the international break on the back of an almost perfect start to the season. Gasperini's side sit top of the table with four wins in five league matches, and have impressed with a near-miss against Serie A champions Inter plus a valuable draw away at Fenerbahçe in the Champions League. During the three-week break between matchday five and matchday six, Gasperini will work with players at Trigoria, including Wesley, Malen and Cristante, who are carrying minor injuries, alongside squad members not called up by their national teams. The goal is to have all players at 100% fitness when league action resumes. According to Corriere della Sera, Roma will play two friendlies during the break. These matches will serve both to build match fitness and to involve young academy players, offering them valuable minutes and opportunities to integrate with the senior squad.

Francesco Totti has revealed he genuinely considered returning to professional football at 48 years old, but ultimately rejected overtures from Genoa and Como. The Roma legend explained his reasoning: he could not bring himself to play against his former club. Totti spent his entire career at Roma before retiring in 2017, scoring 307 goals for the Giallorossi. His reflection on potential comeback moves shows the enduring connection between the former captain and AS Roma, even as other Serie A clubs sought to tempt him back into action.

Francesco Totti has disclosed that he received offers from both Genoa and Como when he was 48 years old, but declined both opportunities. Speaking in connection with his new book *Oltre*, published with Corriere della Sera, Totti explained the reasoning behind his rejection of Serie A football after leaving Roma. Totti recounted how his jesting comments about being ready to return to football were taken seriously by club officials. Genoa, managed by Alberto Gilardino—a fellow 2006 World Cup winner with Italy—and Como, with Cesc Fabregas in the dugout, both made formal approaches. Gilardino was 42 at the time and Fabregas 37, meaning Totti would have been respectively six and eleven years older than the men directing his football. To test his fitness, Totti embarked on a serious conditioning programme: he played eight-a-side football every Monday evening, added three weekly gym sessions and two with a physiotherapist, and overhauled his diet, eliminating bread and sweets. He felt his body respond well, though he acknowledged the inevitable wear of a near-50-year-old—a slight back problem but nothing grave. The Marassi stadium, Genoa's home, held particular appeal: an English-style ground with passionate supporters, and notably the venue of his final Roma match. Gilardino sent occasional WhatsApp messages checking his progress: "Allora?" ("So?"). Yet as Totti trained and his fitness improved, an internal conflict crystallized. He articulated the core tension in a question he posed to himself repeatedly: "But can you play for a team that isn't Roma?" He wrote: "Inside me the right answer rang out loudly. I tried not to hear it." Though age could be overcome—"the foot doesn't age, everyone agrees on that"—the prospect of wearing another shirt felt like a betrayal regardless of his years. "A sporting betrayal has no age, whether you're 18 or 48," he reflected. Totti also revealed the beginning of his relationship with Noemi, describing their first kiss near Piazza del Popolo in a car, and recounted the death of his father Enzo, the legendary "Sceriffo," who died at Rome's Spallanzani hospital after contracting Covid-19. A doctor treating his father called with the news, prefacing it with "Purtroppo" ("Unfortunately"), and Totti understood immediately what had happened.