Words: Gaby McKay
In years to come, Simone Perrotta will be a pub quiz answer.
Which three World Cup winners hail from the Manchester suburb of Ashton-Under-Lyne?
Words: Gaby McKay
In years to come, Simone Perrotta will be a pub quiz answer.
Which three World Cup winners hail from the Manchester suburb of Ashton-Under-Lyne?
The first is easy, Geoff Hurst, who scored a hat-trick for England in the 1966 World Cup final. The second is perhaps more tricky, but Jimmy Armfield also qualifies, having been part of the Three Lions squad in ’66, despite the fact he didn’t actually play.
The third though is a real stumper, as he never actually played a single game for England.
The answer is in fact Simone Perrotta, who lifted the World Cup with Italy in 2006 and is immortalised alongside the other two in statue form outside the ground of local club Curzon Ashton.
Born in Ashton on September 17, 1977; Perrotta moved to Italy at the age of six.
It was a long and arduous journey to World Cup glory for the midfielder, who began his career with Reggina, making his debut in Serie B in 1995.
Three seasons in the second division convinced Juventus to sign the youngster in 1998 but, perhaps unsurprisingly, he couldn’t force his way into a midfield featuring Antonio Conte, Didier Deschamps, Edgar Davids, Alessio Tacchinardi, and Zinedine Zidane.
Perrotta made just 15 appearances across two seasons, before being sent to Bari on a co-ownership deal as part of the deal which brought Gianluca Zambrotta to Turin.
The midfielder got regular playing time, but the Galletti were relegated at the end of the 2000-01 season and Perrotta made the switch to Chievo.
The Flying Donkeys were competing in the top flight for the first time, and most expected them to immediately return to Serie B, but a miracle season saw the Veronese top the table in the early part of the season and eventually finish fifth.
Chievo would struggle to reach those heights in subsequent years, but Perrotta became a key man as they established themselves as a Serie A fixture.
His form eventually earned Perrotta a €7m move to Roma, where he was initially deployed as a defensive midfielder.
However, the 2005-06 season saw him moved to a more advanced role, and that change would ultimately give a Manchester suburb its third World Cup winner.
With Francesco Totti deployed as a false-nine by new Giallorossi Coach Luciano Spalletti, Perrotta took up a role as a trequartista, although in truth he provided a pivot for Er Pupone.
Perrotta scored a career-best eight goals, as well as helping Totti to notch 17 in 29 as Roma reached the Coppa Italia final.
More importantly, that form earned him a call-up for Marcello Lippi’s World Cup squad, and Perrotta proved to be a key man for the Azzurri in Germany.
Deployed as a left-winger, Perrotta played in every game as Italy lifted the trophy.
While he may not have grabbed the headlines in the way Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro or Fabio Grosso did, the Roma man was an indispensable cog in Lippi’s machine.
The following campaign for his club brought a new personal goalscoring record for Perrotta, with the midfielder hitting 13 goals and becoming top-scorer as the Lupi won the Coppa Italia.
The capital club repeated that triumph in the following year, as well as lifting the Supercoppa Italiana.
Perrotta would spend the rest of his career with Roma, announcing his retirement after being left on the bench for the Coppa Italia final defeat to Lazio in 2013.
He hung up his boots with over 300 appearances for the Giallorossi, and 49 goals to his name.
It’s that 2006 World Cup triumph that Perrotta will be most remembered for, that triumph ensuring he’ll forever be a hero to 60 million Italians – and a small corner of Greater Manchester.