Simone Mondiali Rota (born November 6, 1984) is a Filipino

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a defender or a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Philippines Football League The Philippines Football League, commonly known as PFL, is a Philippines, Filipino professional association football, football league sanctioned by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF). It is the Philippines, Philippines' highest level of men ...

club Kaya-Iloilo.

Early life

Rota was left in an orphanage of Buklod Kalinga run by Franciscan sisters in

Parañaque Parañaque, officially the City of Parañaque ( fil, Lungsod ng Parañaque, ), is a first class highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 689,992 people. It is ...

when he was a baby and was raised by Sister May Memorial, who he considers a second mom to him. A woman named Sonia Tulay reportedly left Rota in the convent at about two months old in November 1984. Rota was eventually adopted by Maurizio and Marilena Rota, a couple from

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

who were taxi drivers. Rota has a sister, Valentina, who was also born on the 6 of November and adopted from the Philippines. Italian missionary Mother Flora Zippo, assisted in finding people which would adopt Rota. Rota spent most of his career in

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, especially in

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

-speaking region.

Club career

Italy

Rota entered the first team of Pro Sesto in the 2001–02

Serie C2 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. Usually it consisted of 36 teams, but in the 2011–12 season, there were 41 teams divided geographically into two divisions of ...

season, becoming a regular the following year. In 2005, the team was promoted to

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1. Before the 1978 ...

as the Group A winner of the 2004–05 Serie C2 season. Subsequently, Rota was also selected for the Mirop Cup as a member of Italy U-20 Lega Pro. Their team went up against the youth national teams of

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

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, and

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...

, and eventually Italy's U-20 Lega Pro team was named the champion of that tournament. Rota also capped for the Italy U-20 Lega Pro team in the 2005

Trofeo Dossena Trofeo (Italian and Spanish for trophy) may refer to: * Trofeo Maserati, a one-make racing series * Maserati Trofeo Maserati S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer. Established on 1 December 1914, in Bologna, Italy, the company's ...

, which lost to

Sport Club Internacional Sport Club Internacional (), commonly known as Internacional or simply Inter, is a Brazilian professional football club based in Porto Alegre. They play in the Série A, the first division of the Brazilian league, as well as in Campeonat ...

in the final game. He did not suit up for Italy in the final match of that tournament. In January 2006, Rota was transferred from Pro Sesto to

Manfredonia Manfredonia is a town and commune of Apulia, Italy, in the province of Foggia, from which it is northeast by rail. Manfredonia is situated on the coast, facing east, to the south of Monte Gargano, and gives its name to the gulf to the east of ...

. By the end of that season, Manfredonia finished tenth, and Pro Sesto was relegated. Rota returned to Pro Sesto as a regular, though he missed the rest of the season. In November 2007, Rota returned to Pro Sesto, playing eight games of the season. He was then transferred to

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

Swiss Challenge League The Challenge League is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the winners of the league are promoted to the Super League, while the ...

in 2008. In 2009, Rota returned to Pro Sesto, but the club went bankrupt and it finished last in the

2009–10 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione The 2009–10 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione season was the thirty-second football league season of Italian Lega Pro Seconda Divisione since its establishment in 1978, and the second since the renaming from Serie C to Lega Pro. It was divided int ...

Philippines

In October 2013, Rota showed interest in playing in the United Football League to have more chances of being selected by the

Philippines national football team The Philippines national football team ( Filipino/ tl, Pambansang koponan ng futbol ng Pilipinas, lit=) represents the Philippines in international football, governed by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) and has been playing internati ...

. He signed with Stallion FC in January 2014. In January 2017, Ceres-Negros announced that they had signed Rota, along with few other players, to play for the club. He went on to join Davao Aguilas later in the year.

International career

Italy

Rota represented the Italy U20 Lega Pro team at the 2005–06 Mirop Cup.

Philippines

Rota received his first call up for the

in February 2014, making his international debut in a friendly match against

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

on 1 March 2014. He scored his first international goal in the

2014 AFC Challenge Cup The 2014 AFC Challenge Cup was the fifth and the final edition of the AFC Challenge Cup, an international football competition for Asian Football Confederation (AFC) member nations that are mainly categorized as "emerging countries" in the now ...

group stage match against Laos on 22 May 2014. In August 2016 Rota suffered a serious ACL tear that would rule him out for the rest of the year, including the

2016 AFF Championship The 2016 AFF Championship, sponsored by Suzuki and officially known as the AFF Suzuki Cup 2016, was the 11th edition of the AFF Championship, the football championship of nations affiliated to the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF). The whole to ...

in which the Philippines are the host.

Personal life

Since his return to the Philippines in 2014 Rota makes a point of volunteering at the orphanage where he grew up. Rota is an A.C. Milan fan, and although he fluently speaks

, he has difficulty speaking

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

and

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

. Rota has multiple tattoos, including the outline of the Philippines archipelago and the names of his sister, adopted mother and father on his right forearm and a prayer and Sister May's name on his left forearm. Rota's biography has been depicted in the film ''Journeyman Finds Home: The Simone Rota Story'' which was directed by Albert Almendralejo and Maricel Cariaga.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list the Philippines' goal tally first.''

References

External links

*
Profile
at Football.ch *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rota, Simone 1984 births Living people People from Parañaque Footballers from Metro Manila Italian people of Filipino descent Italian footballers Filipino footballers Association football defenders S.S.D. Pro Sesto players FC Lugano players Philippines international footballers Filipino expatriate footballers Filipino expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Filipino emigrants to Italy Naturalised citizens of Italy Stallion Laguna F.C. players Ceres–Negros F.C. players Davao Aguilas F.C. players Filipino adoptees Asti Calcio F.C. players