Rota was left in an orphanage of Buklod Kalinga run by Franciscan sisters in Parañaque when he was a baby and was raised by Sister May Memorial, who he considers a second mother to him.[3] A woman named Sonia Tulay reportedly left Rota in the convent at about two months old in November 1984.[4]
Rota was eventually adopted by Maurizio Rota and Marilena (née Mondiali), a couple from Italy who were taxi drivers. He has a sister, Valentina, who was also born on the 6th of November and adopted from the Philippines.[3][5]
Mother Flora Zippo, an Italian missionary, assisted in finding people to adopt Rota.[4]
Club career
Italy
Rota entered the first team of Pro Sesto in the 2001–02 Serie C2 season, becoming a regular the following year. In 2005, the team was promoted to Serie C1 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.[6] Their team went up against the youth national teams of Styria, Croatia, Hungary, and Slovenia,[7] and eventually Italy's U-20 Lega Pro team was named the champion of that tournament.[8]
Rota also capped for the Italy U-20 Lega Pro team in the 2005 Trofeo Dossena, which lost to Sport Club Internacional in the final game. He did not suit up for Italy in the final match of that tournament.[9] In January 2006, Rota was transferred from Pro Sesto to Manfredonia.[10] 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.[11]
In November 2007, Rota returned to Pro Sesto, playing eight games of the season. He was then transferred to Lugano of Swiss Challenge League in 2008.[12] In 2009, Rota returned to Pro Sesto, but the club went bankrupt and finished last in the 2009–10 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione.
In January 2017, Ceres-Negros announced that they had signed Rota, along with few other players, to play for the club.[13] He went on to join Davao Aguilas later in the year.[14]
Rota received his first call up for the Philippines national football team in February 2014,[16] making his international debut in a friendly match against Malaysia on 1 March 2014. He scored his first international goal in the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup 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 in which the Philippines were the host.[17]
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 Italian, he has difficulty speaking English and Filipino.[3][5] 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.[18]
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.[19]
Career statistics
International
Scores and results list the Philippines' goal tally first.[20]
