FRANCESCO TOTTI bid farewell to Roma after a remarkable 25-season career with his hometown club Sunday, contributing to a 3-2 win over Genoa that secured the Giallorossi a spot in the Champions League.

Almost 60,000 fans inside the Stadio Olimpico stood up and cheered when Totti replaced Mohamed Salah in the 54th minute.

“Unfortunately the time has come. I’ve cried every day,” Totti said in a speech to fans after the match. “It’s a decision I made with my wife and my family. I would stay here another 25 years. Thank you Roma.

“I would have liked to write a poem or a song but I’ve tried to express myself with my feet,” Totti added.

Totti then put to rest speculation that he might end his career with another club.

“Excuse me if recently I haven’t talked much or cleared up my thoughts,” Totti said. “I’m taking my shirt off for the last time and folding it up well and good. The lights are turning off now and I’m afraid. Allow me to have a little fear. Now I need your help.”

During the post-match ceremony, a huge No. 10 jersey with Totti’s name on it was unveiled at the center of the pitch. All of Roma’s players put on shirts featuring Totti’s No. 10 while the electronic publicity boards lining the pitch read, “Grazie Capitano.”

Totti then walked around the stadium’s athletic track while holding third child Isabel in his arms, with his other two children and wife Ilary Blasi accompanying him.

At one point, Totti stopped and leaned on the publicity barriers and just stared into the stands. Then he cried on Blasi’s shoulder.

Before kickoff, Totti went and saluted Roma’s hard-core “ultra” fans in the “curva sud” — southern end — of the stadium. After posing for pictures, the 40-year-old Totti took his spot on the bench as many fans cried.

Totti has, at different times, fired Roma to a Scudetto, won a World Cup with Italy and earned a European Golden Shoe. Only Paolo Maldini has played more than his 619 Serie A games. Only Silvio Piola can trump his 250 goals in that league.

There will always be those who insist on pointing out that he could have won more, could have pushed his limits further by moving elsewhere. But how could a few measly medals ever mean more than doing all this in the service of your boyhood club? Sunday’s pre-game choreography in the Curva Sud declared that “Totti is Roma.”

And what other city would have thrown a retirement party like this one? Totti Day had the feel of a public festival in Rome, buses commandeered to display a “Thanks Captain” message in lieu of their destination, while fans flocked to take their photo with “selfie statues” commissioned by Corriere dello Sport.

There had been speculation that Totti wanted to play another season and the club was urging him to retire.

Thousands of fans wore Totti’s No. 10 shirt — in white or red — while others had T-shirts that read simply, “captain forever.”

“Let it be known that I lived in the times of Totti,” one fan banner read. (SD-Agencies)