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England have some interest in the final apparantly:
Perrotta follows in England hero's footsteps
6 July 2006
by FIFAworldcup.com
The history of football is riddled with strange coincidences and the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ has delivered another surprising twist of fate with the small town of Ashton-under-Lyne in northern England at the centre of it.
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.
The Perrotta family returned to live in the southern Italian province of Cosenza in 1982 and Simone was to join a local side before being snapped up by Reggina at the age of 13. Spells at Juventus, Bari and Chievo followed until he gained his first cap with Italy’s senior side against Turkey in November 2002.
The irony certainly has not been lost on Hurst, who left Ashton to further his career at West Ham United when he was 13 years old. He told FIFAworldcup.com: "Two World Cup winners from a small town in Lancashire, who would believe it? I don't know too much about Perrotta but understand he wants to finish his career in England. Perhaps my old club West Ham should put in an offer for him."
"There is no other tournament like the World Cup. Every player wants to play in it and every fan wants to be there," he added. But will Perrotta be able to bring a smile to the people of Ashton just like Hurst did four decades ago? "I think it will be great for Ashton-under-Lyne," he concluded. "As long as he doesn't score a hat-trick!"
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