Francesco Totti's confession: 'I was afraid of dying'

The behind-the-scenes story revealed by former Roma captain Francesco Totti sheds a painful light on the darkest months of the pandemic. In the fall of 2020, the idol of an entire fanbase found himself grappling with human fragility, fearing he wouldn't survive Covid.

High fever, a relentless cough, and severe breathing difficulties had rapidly compromised his clinical condition. A nightmare amplified by a still-open wound: the death of his father Enzo, who passed away on October 12th at the age of 76 due to coronavirus.

The loss of his father had left a profound mark. "He was my number one, and unfortunately also another figure in the death toll," Totti wrote in his recently published autobiography. The dramatic images of military trucks loaded with coffins in Bergamo remained etched in the former footballer's mind, a horror that made the threat even more tangible. In those anguished days, his thoughts constantly turned to his children, Cristian, Chanel, and Isabel, while a subtle sense of guilt lingered over the privileged conditions in which he was able to live through the lockdown, unlike many families forced into cramped quarters.

Contagion and the nightmare of bilateral pneumonia

The virus had begun circulating in the house after a private screening of the biopic for a select few. After discovering that some of the guests had tested positive, Totti had tests performed in his garden, only to discover that he too had been infected. While his children and partner's symptoms remained mild, his situation had worsened.

Isolated in a room, he watched his condition worsen day by day, consumed by the terror of suffering the same fate as his father. "I was terribly afraid of dying like dad," he confesses, recalling the moment he was forced to tell his children, "I don't know if I'll make it." After two weeks of ordeal, his transfer to the Campus Bio-Medico in Rome confirmed the severity of his condition: oxygen saturation at 88% and bilateral pneumonia. Rather than be separated from his children, Totti refused hospitalization, signing a voluntary discharge to return home.

The medical breakthrough and the rebirth

When the situation seemed hopeless, a turning point came with an unexpected phone call from Pier Silvio Berlusconi, who offered to transfer him to Milan to be treated by Professor Alberto Zangrillo, head physician at San Raffaele Hospital and a family doctor. Although he decided against the trip, Totti accepted the luminary's valuable advice—including the prone position to aid breathing—supported by a Roman home care team.
Gradually, the fever disappeared and the oxygen saturation rose to 99%.

"I felt reborn," he recalls today, while admitting that the after-effects of the disease are not uncommon: even today, his breathing hasn't fully returned to what it once was. A battle that Totti had chosen to share with his fans back on November 20, 2020, publicly thanking those, like Professor Zangrillo, who had helped him recover.