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Italian football star Francesco Totti has ignited controversy with his plans to visit Moscow to attend a gala event staged by a Russian sports betting portal next month.
As huge billboards touting the retired AS Roma captain’s arrival appeared in the Russian capital, Italian critics have urged Totti to rethink his plans, warning that the trip would give succour to the Kremlin at a critical juncture for Ukraine and Europe as a whole.
“Francesco, Rome loves you for your heart and generosity: do not allow them to be associated with those who trample on human rights and democracy,” said Andrea Massaroni, the Rome co-ordinator for a small liberal party, Più Europa (More Europe).
One of the top two lifetime scorers in Italian football history, Totti is the guest of honour at an April 8 corporate event held by Bookmaker Ratings, an online platform dedicated to covering the world of Russian sports betting, including rating local bookmakers.
The 600-person, four-hour function is billed as a “gala dinner” at the Irina Viner-Usmanova Gymnastics Palace — a Moscow arena financed by the Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who is under sanctions, and named after his former wife of 30 years.
Marco Setaccioli, a civil servant and pro-Ukraine activist, wrote on X that, with his appearance, Totti — popularly known as “the eighth king of Rome” — was being “reduced to a propaganda minstrel” for Putin. The Russian president routinely uses celebrity visits to back his claims that his country is still widely admired among Europeans despite his war in Ukraine.
The giant digital billboards promoting the event declare “the Emperor is Travelling to the Third Rome”, a popular nickname for Moscow that has been adopted by Russian hardliners who see contemporary Russia as a Christian empire that will outlast ancient Rome.
Totti is known for his career-long fidelity to his hometown squad, Roma, which he led to the Serie A championship in 2001, the club’s first in nearly two decades. The attacker, who repeatedly refused lucrative offers from other teams, was also a member of Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning team. He retired in 2017.
A spokesman for Totti said the Moscow gala was “only a sporting event” but that the retired footballer would “make all the necessary assessments” before travelling.
Nona Mikhelidze, senior fellow at Rome’s Institute for International Affairs, said his planned appearance in Moscow reflected wider Italian “ignorance” about the war in Ukraine.
“Totti going there says something about the lack of empathy in Italy towards the human suffering in Ukraine,” she said.
The furore comes amid deep divisions within Italy, and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s ruling coalition, over Rome’s continued support for Kyiv, as US President Donald Trump’s push for a quick end to the war has sparked fears in Europe that he would agree to most of Putin’s demands.
Though Meloni has been an outspoken supporter of Ukraine, Italian public opinion has grown weary of the conflict and there is little public enthusiasm for Italian involvement in any European peacekeeping mission or the continent’s military spending spree.
A recent Ipsos survey found that only 32 per cent of respondents back Ukraine, down from 57 per cent in the weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Some 54 per cent now consider themselves neutral, up from 38 per cent three years ago.
A separate survey carried out by Italian pollster YouTrend last week found that only 10 per cent of Italians supported sending troops as peacekeepers with other Nato states; 41 per cent would be willing to see Italian troops as part of a UN mission, and 38 per cent were opposed under any circumstances.
“They always think they want to see a peace agreement,” said Mikhelidze. “They do not really care whether this peace agreement will be at the cost of Ukraine’s sovereignty, territory and independence.”
