Roma captain Francesco Totti personally paid a team of police officers for two years in a bid to thwart his son Christian being kidnapped, according to reports in Italy.
Totti, 38, is nearing the end of an impressive career with the ‘Giallorossi’ but the midfielder’s lofty status as ‘Il Re di Roma’ (the King of Rome) has not been without inconveniences.
Between 2008 and 2010 Totti had to pay for officers to watch over his son amid rumours a hard-line Roma ‘ultra’ supporter, who had just been released from prison, had been offered 50,000 euros (Dh197,000) to kidnap Totti’s son, who turned 10 years old last week.
The claims were made by Luca Odevaine, the ex-chief of staff for former Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni, while he was being questioned by police in relation to the ‘Mafia Capitale’ investigation, which saw 46 accused go on trial in Rome last week.
According to a report in Gazzetta dello Sport, police at the time were unable to confirm the rumours and it was decided Totti pay a team of officers, who were close to retirement age, from his own pocket to guarantee his son's safety.
“One day Vito Scala (Totti’s trainer) came to see me and told me that a Roma ultra who had just got out of prison told him he had been offered 50,000 euro to kidnap Totti’s son,” Odevaine said in the report.
“He asked me to check. I checked with the then Carabinieri commander Luongo, with the mayor of Rome and with the special branch.
“Given we were dealing only with a rumour, we agreed it would not be appropriate to deploy security services. So it fell to a group of officers who were close to retiring to play a supervisory role outside of working hours.
“Totti paid them himself, giving the money to me before I passed it over.”
The Mafia Capitale trial, which began last week, is focusing on a 46-strong mafia gang whose criminal tentacles reached into almost every department of Rome’s City Hall.
The gang are accused of operating a mafia-style network that used extortion, fraud and theft to divert millions of euros destined for public services into their own pockets.
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Multitasking pays off for money goals
Tackling money goals one at a time cost financial literacy expert Barbara O'Neill at least $1 million.
That's how much Ms O'Neill, a distinguished professor at Rutgers University in the US, figures she lost by starting saving for retirement only after she had created an emergency fund, bought a car with cash and purchased a home.
"I tell students that eventually, 30 years later, I hit the million-dollar mark, but I could've had $2 million," Ms O'Neill says.
Too often, financial experts say, people want to attack their money goals one at a time: "As soon as I pay off my credit card debt, then I'll start saving for a home," or, "As soon as I pay off my student loan debt, then I'll start saving for retirement"."
People do not realise how costly the words "as soon as" can be. Paying off debt is a worthy goal, but it should not come at the expense of other goals, particularly saving for retirement. The sooner money is contributed, the longer it can benefit from compounded returns. Compounded returns are when your investment gains earn their own gains, which can dramatically increase your balances over time.
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