Soccer Icon Doc ‘My Name Is Francesco Totti’ Sells to Sky in U.K. and Germany (EXCLUSIVE)

Italian sales company Vision Distribution has scored sales on soccer icon doc “My Name Is Francesco Totti” by Roman director Alex Infascelli (“S Is for Stanley”) to Sky for the U.K. and Germany, ahead of its Rome Film Festival world premiere on Saturday.

The deal, which sees the high-profile doc start its international journey, was announced during Rome’s MIA market (Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo, or International Audiovisual Market) being held Oct. 14-18 as a hybrid digital and physical event.

The intimate piece is narrated by Totti, who on the night before his farewell to soccer basically relives his life as though he were watching it as a movie, together with his fans, his team, A.S. Roma, and his native Rome, the city that during his long faithful career he has come to encapsulate like few others.

Infascelli, himself a Rome native, told Variety that the doc transcends the soccer world.

This film is a homage to Rome, just like Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Great Beauty” and other films that depict Rome, which of course is a very unique city.

“Totti is a monument, as he defines himself,” Infascelli said. “I think that for viewers outside Italy the film is a way of taking a walk inside Rome and Roman soccer, which ultimately is the Colosseum; the big arena,” he added.

“It’s like seeing a modern gladiator telling his story in the first person,” the director went on to point out.

“Rome has been depicted in many ways, but never through this prism,” Infascelli noted.

“My Name Is Francesco Totti,” which is based on a book by Totti and Italian journalist Paolo Condò titled “Un Capitano” (which translates as “A Captain”), published in Italy by Rizzoli, comprises unparalleled access to its star and plenty of archive material, including never-before-seen home movies and images from Totti and his family.

Doc is produced by The Apartment and Wildside, which are both Fremantle units, with Capri Entertainment and Fremantle, and also Vision Distribution and Rai Cinema in collaboration with Sky and Amazon Prime Video.

“Francesco Totti is more than one of the best and admired football players worldwide; he is an icon and one of the true heroes of the city of Rome,” Vision Distribution CEO Nicola Maccanico said in a statement.

“Nobody has ever captured the man and the legend as closely as Alex Infascelli,” Maccanico added, underlining that through the prism of Totti’s life the director “succeeded in painting a portrait of Italy from the 80s until today.”