5 – Simone Perrotta
There is a difference between being talented and being useful, and Simone Perrotta makes the latter a case in point. Whatever team you may imagine to build, someone like him would turn out handy. He could play both as a central midfielder and as a winger, mostly taking care of offensive duties, but covering as well.
He played for the national team in 2004, 2006 and 2008. Of course the World Cup was his shining moment, as he was perfectly integrated in a system which combined excellent but somewhat slow ball-players with fast and/or powerful workmen. Even when he was not receiving the ball, his constant runs into the enemy lines served to widen the adversary and give some breathing space to the more technical players like Andrea Pirlo or Francesco Totti.
Perrotta wasn’t always the fastest sprinter, but he was a monster of stamina, able to keep up his runs up and down the pitch for the full ninety minutes (and sometimes beyond). Keeping in mind that he was also tactically adaptable, he could have been one of the best European midfielders of his time if only he had better finishing skills, or at least a decent shot from distance.
The fact that he did not score in 2006 exemplifies his limits, but he remains a shrewd, versatile and highly reliable player who did much for his national team’s midfield and contributed to a World Cup victory.
