Francesco Totti (47), one of the “living legends” of Italian soccer who recently visited Japan, reiterated his feelings of injustice in an interview with Japanese media, recalling the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup Round of 16 defeat.
Japanese media outlet Football Zone reported an exclusive interview with Totti on Sept. 25. He spoke to the publication while attending an event in Tokyo as an ambassador for a Swedish luxury brand.
Totti said, “There are many things that make me feel very happy to be in Japan.
In particular, I ate (Italian) food here, which was of high quality and delicious,” he said, adding that he was pleased with his visit to Tokyo.
Then Football Zone brought up the Korea-Japan World Cup 21 years ago.
At the time, Italy faced South Korea in the round of 16 and lost 1-2 after extra time, conceding a golden goal to Lee Dong-hwan.
Totti was also asked about the Korea-Japan World Cup Round of 16 by Korean reporters during his visit last month. 온라인카지노
“I don’t know why I said that, it’s a painful memory,” he said, emphasizing that it was a slip of the tongue when he said “one goal is enough to beat Korea” before the game.
However, in an interview with ‘Football Zone’, he said that if VAR had been used at the time, “the result would have been different”. “
At the time, Italy had a goal disallowed due to a questionable offside call, sparking controversy around the world,” the outlet noted, adding that it “asked Totti how far Italy would have gone had VAR been in place at the time.
“I don’t think we lost the game against Korea because we lacked strength.
I was confident that if we had beaten Korea, we would have reached the final regardless. You (Football Zone) are right.
Needless to say, if VAR had existed in that era, it would have been a very different result.”
During his playing career, the AS Roma one-club man led Italy to victory at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, after failing to make the cut at the Korea-Japan World Cup.
Meanwhile, the ‘Legends All-Star Game’ scheduled for the 21st of this month at the Goyang Sports Complex, featuring Living Legends such as Paolo Maldini (Italy) and Ronaldinho (Brazil), as well as Totti, was canceled due to the organizers’ failure to attract sponsors.
The match was an event match featuring Living Legends from three countries, Korea, Italy, and Brazil.
Totti had attended a press conference in Korea last month with Maldini, Steady Hwan, Choi Jin-cheol, and others regarding the Legends match.