Totti was born in Rome, in the Porta Metronia city neighbourhood. His parents are Enzo and Fiorella Totti. Unlike other children his age who preferred to watch cartoons, Totti was always more interested in watching football matches instead. Totti constantly played football with older boys. He refused a big deal from A.C. Milan while waiting for a deal from his favourite club AS Roma, and finally joined the AS Roma junior team in 1989.

Hugely talented as a teenager, Totti scored in Italy's 4-1 defeat by Spain in the final of the UEFA European Under-18 Championship in July 1995. In the final of the Under-21 competition in 1996, Totti opened the scoring in a 1-1 draw against the Spanish before triumphing on penalties.

Totti made his senior Azzurri debut in the Euro 2000 qualifying victory against Switzerland on 10 October 1998. He played in the finals tournament and scored against Romania and Belgium and played in the final; losing to France. Although he was on the losing side, Totti was named Man of the Match in the final.

More disappointment followed at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, with Totti failing to make a significant impact and then being sent off as Italy controversially lost to the South Korea in the second round, when he received a second yellow card for alleged penalty area diving by the referee Byron Moreno.

At Euro 2004, Totti garnered negative media attention when he spat at Christian Poulsen, a midfielder for Denmark, leading to the Danes today calls him for Snotti. Totti was subsequently banned until the semi-finals, but did not play in the tournament again, as Italy failed to qualify for the next round.

In the 2006 FIFA World Cup, he scored from a controversial penalty in stoppage time in the second half to give Italy a 1-0 victory over Australia and propel his country into the quarter finals. After the goal, he celebrated by sucking on his thumb in honor of his young son.

--Wikipedia