Perotta and Sir Geoff Hurst
Italy’s Perotta and England’s legend, Sir Geoff Hurst share a lot of common things.
Forty years ago, Ashton’s most celebrated son, Sir Geoff Hurst, scored the only hat-trick in FIFA World Cup in England’s Final win over Germany. Four decades on, another footballer from the same Lancashire town is bidding for glory in the Final - for another country.
Italy’s qualification for Sunday’s FIFA World Cup Final in Berlin means that Simone Perrotta, who was born in Ashton to Italian parents, could follow in Hurst’s footsteps. Perrotta’s parents, Anna Maria and Francesco, moved to Ashton in the mid-1970s to be nearer Francesco’s brother. Simone was born on 17 September 1977 and it was not long before he was kicking a ball about in the playgrounds of St Anne’s RC Primary School in Audenshaw.