The picture seen around the world!

This image was taken by Fabio Rossi, the Roma photographer on the last match of day of @francescototti , below is his personal recollection of the day and it's everything you love about football.

Rossi: "We made sure to immortalise everything, from when he let us in at 7:30 in the morning, up to the dinner with him at a restaurant after the match. My relationship with him changed after that day too…”

“Changed in what way?”

Rossi: “It’s hard to explain, and it makes me feel strange even to say it, but I always felt a kind of barrier between us, even though we had known each other for so long. I always saw him first and foremost as the captain of Roma, and I almost felt embarrassed every time I had to talk to him. A moment on that famous 28th of May changed it all for me though. It was the break-through which removed that barrier between us, and now we are much closer…”

“Which moment?”

Rossi: “Do you know the photo of him sitting on the stairs leading to the dressing room, looking off into the distance, moments before heading back out onto the pitch for the ceremony?”

“The photo that was seen around the world.”

Rossi: “Exactly. As I was looking down the lens at his expression, I couldn’t stop my tears. I had to move away. It was a spontaneous moment: all the tension had been building up and it just needed to break free, so I wept. He turned to me and said: “Hey now, don’t you start Fabie’, it’s not over yet. Enough of that…” The only other times I have been as emotional as I was that night were when my two children, Diego and Eva, were born.”

“Why did he sit down on those steps?”

Rossi: “We had to wait for him to be called back out onto the pitch over the loudspeaker. After the match, he headed off towards the dressing room, changed his shirt in front of his usual locker, and then came out and sat on the stairs. In that moment all 24 years of his career must have passed before his eyes. That photo summed everything up perfectly, it’s a pity it wasn’t considered for the World Press Photo prize. I think that’s a shame, because those eyes really do say everything: they are the eyes of many of us Romanisti on that day…”