A fortnight ago, Francesco Totti rolled back the years with a late, late brace to send Roma fans into raptures and rescue his side's game against Torino.
The reaction, not just in Rome but here on Balls.ie and across European football, was massive; a romantic footballing figure, a one-club man, bowing out in spectacular circumstances.
Or so we thought. Turns out, the man himself had other ideas.
This evening, with Roma trailing Genoa 2-1, manager Luciano Spaletti once more turned to Roma's 'Capitano Eterno', this time on the hour mark. The former Italian international only went and pulled another scorcher out of the bag less than 20 minutes later.
Roma went on to take all three points at Genoa, as Stephan El Shaarawy returned to haunt his former club. But there was only one name on everyone's lips:
En los últimos 55 minutos jugados, Totti ha marcado 4 goles y regalado una asistencia. ¡Qué grandísimo! pic.twitter.com/TtluhXz0gZ
— AS ROMA (@NoticiASRoma) May 2, 2016
4 partidos, 4 goles en 56 minutos.
FRANCESCO TOTTI 🔝 pic.twitter.com/W8duU7df11— Fútbol (@Futbool_Fotos) May 2, 2016
Eterno capitano 👏👏👏👏 #Totti
— Juan Manuel Iturbe (@Juan_iturbe93) May 2, 2016
Francesco Totti...what else?! #laclasse #semprelui pic.twitter.com/H3wqLwdduD
— sergio parisse (@sergioparisse) May 2, 2016
Running out of superlatives for Franceco #Totti ... but then again are we really surprised? Pure class! Grande ...
— Richard Whittle (@RichWman) May 2, 2016
With the Italian great being strongly linked to MLS, and most notably the New York Cosmos, questions must now surely be raised as to why Spaletti would be willing to let him go at all. Many Roma fans now wish to see their talisman and club legend offered a new contract, and his last five performances would probably justify it.
And according to Eurosport, Roma president James Palotta is more than willing to renew Totti's deal with the club for a further year, with an announcement due in the coming days.
After the 2016 he's had so far, it's the least Totti deserves.
He has now scored 248 goals in 599 appearances in Serie A, and despite retiring from international football a full 10 years ago, there are some in his homeland who are even wondering if he could have a cameo role in Antonio Conte's Italy squad this summer.
That seems a stretch for the great man, but he once again proved this evening why he's such an iconic figure in the Italian capital and beyond.
