ASK a football fan to name an English World Cup winner and the likes of Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore or Gordon Banks will roll off the tongue.
One name you will almost certainly not hear is that of Simone Perrotta.
However, the 46-year-old now-retired midfielder holds a unique place in football history… as the last Englishman to lift the biggest prize in football.
He was, unfortunately, playing for Italy.
Perrotta never earned an England cap, instead playing 48 times for the Azzurri.
And he played 61 minutes in the final as the Italians beat France on penalties to lift the Jules Rimet trophy in the summer of 2006.
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But it might have all been so different for Perrotta.
As the Roma legend could have been knocked out on penalties by Portugal in the quarter-finals, playing for the country of his birth.
That’s because Perrotta was born less than ten miles from Manchester United’s Old Trafford in Ashton-under-Lyne.
Perrotta was born in the town to Italian parents who had emigrated in the 1970s.
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Mum Ana Maria and Dad Francesco ran a pub in Ashton, with the latter also taking over a football team called the Jolly Milan, before they headed back to Italy when Perrotta was six-years-old.
Giovanni Castellano, a former neighbour of the Perrotta’s, told Manchester Evening News: “Football was in the family’s blood.
“It (the team Francesco run) was named after the Jolly Carter, a pub in Hyde where we were based, and Milan because we were all Milan fans.
“Having this football team meant trips for Simone to such exotic footballing locations as Hyde, Gorton and Oldham and even at that age he was showing signs of becoming football crazy like his father.”
During his time in England, Perrotta senior developed an affinity for Manchester United and eventually saw his son play at the stadium for AS Roma in a 2007 Champions League match.
On the 2006 final, Mr Castellano added: “It was not Simone’s best match, but he did us proud throughout the contest. It was a fantastic achievement that most of us can only dream about.
“Now we can rightly say that there is no other place in the world with two World Cup football players of different nationalities from the same town.”
Perrotta’s club career saw him stay in Italy, starring for the likes of Reggina, Juventus, Bari and Verona before retiring at Roma in 2013 after nine seasons with the club.
He won the Italian Cup in back-to-backs years and the Super Cup once with Roma, as well as lifting the Euro Under-21 title with Italy in 2000.
Perrotta was immortalised with a statue outside of Curzon Ashton’s Tameside Stadium, which will play host to Avely or Barnet in the FA Cup first round proper.
The statute, erected in 2010, depicts him alongside the borough’s two members of England’s 1966 triumph – Geoff Hurst and Jimmy Armfield.
Upon finding out about the statue seven years later he said: “It was my uncle, who still lives there, who told me about it.
“I find it a big strange nobody else alerted me to the existence of this statue. My kids were surprised standing there in front of the statues of those players. And I thought: ‘Hey, I’m there too’.”
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England can secure qualification to Euro 2024 by getting a draw against Italy – who beat the Three Lions on penalties in the final at Wembley in Euro 2020 – on Tuesday.
Gareth Southgate’s side are unbeaten in Group C qualifying, having beaten 2-1 Italy in the reverse fixture.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
