Roma denies Totti will play final year for free

Milan - Roma president James Pallotta has played down reports suggesting club icon Francesco Totti is so desperate not to leave he will play a final year at the club for free.

One-club man Totti, in his 23rd season with the Giallorossi, will see his contract expire on June 30.

Pallotta has yet to offer the 39-year-old playmaker a final year's deal because, according to reports, he would like Totti to take up a director's role as the club looks to the future and a fresh start with a new stadium that is currently in the planning stages.

Reports on Friday claimed Totti has offered to forego his salary for next season in a bid to remain in the Italian capital, where he made his debut with Roma in 1993.

But Palotta, speaking from Boston, was quoted as saying in Gazzetta dello Sport: "It's a lie. Someone is blackening the name of the club's greatest player."

Yet Totti's playing future at the club remains in limbo, with reports suggesting he could finally be tempted to play for only his second professional club with a money-spinning move to the Major Soccer League or the Emirates.

Such a move could, however, hinder any plan to return to Roma to take up a role on the board.

Meanwhile, any decision could be swayed by Sunday, when Roma visit derby rivals Lazio at what is expected to be a virtually empty Stadio Olimpico.

Thousands of Roma fans have deserted the city's famous stadium this season in protest at added security measures at the ground, including barriers which separate the ultras' traditional territory of the 'Curva', and on Thursday several banners were seen around the city calling for fans to stay away.

It would be an ill-fitting farewell to the player who has given so much to the club, who in the past decade has finished runners-up no less than six times, including the past two seasons, having won its last title with Totti in 2001.

With 244 goals in Serie A, Totti is only second to retired, all-time record-holder Silvio Piola (274). A World Cup winner with Italy in 2006, Totti has won two Italian Cups with Roma but suffered finishing runner-up in the league title race an incredible eight times.

In essence, Totti could play his final derby in front of as little as 10,000 fans -- a "sad" scenario that Roma defender Antonio Rudiger cannot fathom.

"It's sad to think this could be Totti's final derby," said the German.

"Francesco's a legend and I'm said to think that this could be his last game against Lazio."