"?Roma legend Francesco Totti has signed a new one-year contract to stay with the club until the end of next season at which point he will retire from football after completing what will be a 25th year in the Giallorossi first team.
Totti, who is Serie A's second highest goalscorer of all time, had been tipped to join New York Cosmos in the North American Soccer League, but will remain a modern one-club man to match the likes of Paolo Maldini and Ryan Giggs.
"It's a fantastic feeling," the player told ASRoma.com. "I always wanted to end my career having only worn one shirt - the Roma one - and I think I earned it."
It's official: Francesco #Totti will play on for an incredible 25th season with #ASRoma https://t.co/g8ZDXqjiNO pic.twitter.com/39ttnTYbS9
As part of the deal, Totti will move up to board level in the summer of 2017.
"I'm delighted, because after this year as a player I have another six as a director," he said. "As I've always told the president and the club as a whole, I preferred to have a specific role such as technical director. They've agreed to that and I'm very grateful for it."
Asked for his opinion, "?Roma president Jim Pallotta said, "I'm pretty happy about it. But I think probably all of Rome is pretty happy about it because they don't have to talk about it for the next six months now like they have for the last six months!"
#Totti con la #Roma fino al 2017 // Totti signed a one-year playing contract. The legend to be continued... pic.twitter.com/qJ6s2aykoF
"I think it is great that, on the birthday of AS Roma, on this day Francesco signs for one more year, his last year.
"I just said to him a couple of minutes ago, 'Enjoy the year!' - and really just take it all in, every stadium that he goes to because unfortunately it will be the last time he is in that stadium as a player."
Totti first joined Roma's youth ranks in 1989 at the age of 13. He was called into the first-team after just three years and made his professional debut in March 1993.
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