DUISBURG, Germany, July 8 - Sunday's World Cup final could be Francesco Totti's last game for Italy and will go a long way to determining how he is remembered.

No-one in Italy doubts that Totti is one of the greatest talents their country has produced and among the very best players of the past decade.

But outside of the peninsula opinions on the 29-year-old AS Roma captain are much less certain for the simple reason that he has rarely shone on a global stage and long before the World Cup said he may quit as an international after it finishes.

Wonderful goals and sublime passes in Serie A have earned him the admiration of those who follow Italian domestic football but those moments of genius have been much rarer in the big international tournaments.

At Euro 2000, then Italy coach Dino Zoff could not decide whether Totti was a midfielder or a striker.

But he played an important role in Italy's run to the final where they lost to Sunday's opponents, via a golden goal, earning the man of the match award in the final.

Two years later, Giovanni Trapattoni decided to build his team around Totti for the World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan.

FANTASTIC FORM

During qualification Totti was in fantastic form but at the finals he failed to live up to expectations and ended the campaign with a sending-off in the humiliating second-round defeat to the Koreans.

In the European Championships in Portugal two years ago, Totti's reputation suffered an even bigger blow when he was handed a five-match ban after television cameras caught him spitting in the face of Danish midfielder Christian Poulsen.

With Totti sidelined and shamed, Italy failed to qualify from their group and another competition ended bitterly for the Azzurri.

Page:

1

2