Francesco Totti Loves a Bit of Tongue

[ot-video type=”youtube” url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S_D7puL9w0″]

When 38 year old AS Roma captain Francesco Totti scored on noted getting chipped aficionado Joe Hart to level the Manchester City- Roma match at 1’s; he established himself as the oldest goalscorer in Champions League history. It’s a record he will hold until he scores another goal in the Champions League later on in the campaign I’d imagine. But it wasn’t the fact that Roma’s ageless wonder had set a record which struck me, seeing as I expect Totti to score goals for Roma. I mean he’s been scoring goals for Roma since 1994, so it’s almost a sure thing. What struck me was what was on Totti’s feet when he set the record, namely the customized pair of Nike Tiempo Legend V‘s.

It seems that like all great Roman leaders (Caesar, Julius or Aurelius, Marcus) Totti loves a bit of tongue… on his football boots! Now Nike haven’t offered the Tiempo with a fold over tongue since the Legend III, however, Totti has been sporting customized Tiempo’s with fold over tongues the likes of which Nike never offered when they actually built the fold over tongue as a part of the boot! Never has a fold over tongue on a pair of Tiempo’s looked as luxuriant as as it does on Totti one-offs. I do have a hypothesis about Totti’s loyalty to the fold over tongue. And I believe there’s a technical reason about it, you see Francesco Totti is the master of the cucchiaio chip. Translating over to English as Spoon chip it sees Totti strike the ball right on the laces, so the tongue would provide a consistent strike zone for this deftest of chips.

Also it seems to me that Nike have spent more R and D time on the Totti one-off tongues than they did when they actually utilized a fold over tongue, I mean look at this closeup image of Totti’s boots from last season, why didn’t they do this when they designed their boots with the tongue?

If you’re a fan of a classy tongue like I am, then you’re probably salivating over the Totti Tiempo’s. You’re probably also wondering, why aren’t Nike offering the tongue option to customers? It could be done either through NikeiD or even a limited Tiempo Legend V “Totti Edition”. It’d definitely sell and it’d add a shock of class to what is already a really classy boot. So come on Nike, make it so, let us have the “Totti Tongue”!

If you’re looking for a pair of the Neon Turquoise/Hyper Crimson/Black Tiempo’s sans fold over tongue, you’ll find them over at soccer.com.

Do you love the fold over tongue on Totti’s Tiempo’s? Would you buy them if Nike offered them to the general public? Let us know down in the comments, or give us a bell on facebook or twitter.