Use the promo code 'rankings26' to receive 26% off a TDS Subscription.

Tori DellaPeruta didn’t think she’d make the bench. Stepping on the pitch was a pipe dream. But there she was, summoned from the subs with Pomigliano trailing 1-0 at half time in a crucial Serie A match.

Deep into the second half, the moment came. A cross, a rebound, a loose ball, then the ripple of the back of the net as DellaPeruta knocked it in. The goal won the game for her squad and stood as a dream start to the then-17-year-old American’s stint in Italy.

And now, six months after that opening goal, the Georgia native has established herself as one of the most exciting young players in Italy’s top division. A prolific goalscorer with a penchant for taking on defenders, DellaPeruta went from unsure Italian-American trialist to youth national team goalscorer, one of the more impressive US nationals to play abroad in recent memory.

“It's an experience of a lifetime to get professional experience before going to college. It's a big blessing overall for it to all work out,” DellaPeruta said.

Her numbers in Italy were impressive. DellaPeruta scored four goals as Pomigliano fought off relegation in its first Serie A season. Her strong performances earned her a spot at the U19 European Championships, where she tallied three appearances off the bench for Italy. And for the Italian-American, it was the perfect experience, one that exposed her to a new life, new culture and new perspective as she heads into her inaugural college soccer season at North Carolina.

“Her competitiveness was second to none”

The stories are numerous for coach Iggy Moleka, technical director of United Futbol Academy in Atlanta. He recalls the 5 year old DellaPeruta, a goalie who assigned herself a new position, declaring herself a midfielder because she was sick of playing in net.

He remembers the maturing kid, a natural finisher who refused to lose a scrimmage, even when playing against the boys club team under the UFA umbrella. He recollects seeing DellaPeruta at 11 years old, stronger and more technical than the rest of the team.

“At 11, 12 years old. You could tell the kid was gonna be amazing,” Moleka said.

DellaPeruta left UFA at 12, but returned to the club at the U16 age group. Moleka was still in charge of the team, and saw a more refined, but equally competitive player. After every ECNL game, DellaPeruta studied the film extensively picking apart her performance, finding the smallest issues, the most minute of errors.

And every week, she’d return to practice, and tell her coach all the things she needed to work on.

“How many kids will that do that at 16, 17 years old?” Moleka said.

“It was perfect timing”

The plan was always to play somewhere. DellaPeruta graduated high school early, with a view to enrolling at UNC in spring 2022. But there were other options, too. After being stuck in the Italian citizenship confirmation process for almost three years, DellaPeruta’s Italian passport arrived in December 2021 — weeks before she was slated to kick off her college career in Chapel Hill.

As soon as the documentation arrived, her club coach started putting some feelers out. Well-connected in Serie A scouting networks, he sent DellaPeruta’s highlight videos to various agencies in the area, seeing if any clubs were interested.

“It was definitely an option for me to go. Getting our citizenship and passports in December, it was just like, we can definitely work this out and try to make something happen,” DellaPeruta said.

Pomigliano caught the eye, inviting the recent graduate to go on trial at their training facility in Naples. Her older sister was in negotiations, too, eventually settling at AC Milan as a regular trainee. That both of them had eyes abroad reassured their family, and DellaPeruta was given the nod to pursue a European opportunity.

“I love scoring goals”

Pomigliano CF plays in a suburb slightly north of Naples, with a population of just under 40,000. Though Serie A giants Napoli tend to be the major draw, the region is home to a handful of clubs. Women’s side Pomigliano CF, founded in 2019, is steadily weaving itself into that culture. The Stadio Ugo Gobbato only seats less than 2,000, but the stands are often full. When the team walks around, there are knowing glances, remarks on recent results and well-wishes on future fixtures.

It is in this setting that DellaPeruta found herself.

Nine days into her trial, she had no idea if she was going to make the team. Her coach spoke minimal English, and she only understood the basics of Italian. She was tactically literate enough to understand what the team asked of her — “ball”, “shoot”, “pass” are all part of soccer’s natural lexicon — but the prospect of making the first team for a Serie A club wasn’t something she’d considered.

On Day 10, the news came: Pomigliano wanted her in the first team immediately. The club swiftly made arrangements for DellaPeruta’s daily life, shuttling her into an apartment with two teammates and registering her by the second game of the season.

It didn’t take long for her to embed herself firmly into the first team. After scoring on her debut, DellaPeruta came off the bench in her second. She was afforded the same opportunities in her third and fourth games, scoring two goals in her first four appearances for the club.

“Every little ball in the air or anything, I'm gonna get on the end of it,” DellaPeruta said.

Then, her fifth. DellaPeruta was named in the starting XI for Pomigliano’s match against Internazionale, a clash with one of the country’s giants. Internazionale came into the game in fifth place, with a chance to push even higher up the table should other results go its way. Pomigliano, meanwhile, was sitting precariously in eighth, dangling two spots above the relegation zone, and coming off back-to-back losses. Getting a result, then, was vital.

And Pomigliano performed, with DellaPeruta playing a crucial role in the eventual winner. She muscled the ball away from a defender, before feeding Giorgia Tudisco. The striker, in turn, lashed a shot into the top right corner — enough for a 1-0 win and a temporary respite from the threat of relegation.

For the team, it was a vital win. DellaPeruta, meanwhile, held her spot in the XI for the rest of the season.

“My goal is to win every game. For the team, for the club, for the coach,” she said.

“It’s not easy”

After a while, though, the winning stopped. Following a 5-3 thrashing at the hands of Roma, Pomigliano dangled dangerously above the relegation zone. Prior to the next game — a clash with Sampodira — the team was summoned together, but coach Domenico Panico wasn’t present. The players were confused, but then the news came: if they didn’t win their next game, Panico would be sacked.

“I didn't give it any meaning. I just played my hardest to win,” DellaPeruta said. “I didn't even think twice about it.”

Pomigliano lost 1-0, despite creating a flurry of second half chances. And the next day of training was led by the second team coach.

It was one of a few difficult moments of DellaPeruta’s tenure in Italy.

Throughout her youth soccer career, she always had a safety net to fall back on, her family there as support and consolation. But her parents were halfway around the world. And although they followed the team and regularly spoke to both of their daughters, that familial connection was hard to come by. Some nights were lonely, moments where DellaPeruta felt like a stranger in a foreign country.

“At the beginning, it was really hard. You don't know what you’ll get until you experience it,” DellaPeruta said.

Settling into Italian culture wasn’t exactly seamless, either. DellaPeruta thought she might be around teammates who spoke English. But she arrived in her new digs to find future teammates who had little command of the language. Still, they came up with a system. English lessons were to be taught at breakfast, while Italian was reserved for the rest of the day.

“[Teaching English] is just the little stuff that comes with the experience,” Della Peruta said. “[My roommates ended up becoming some of my really good friends.”

“I was really proud”

For Pomigliano, everything came down to the last day. It needed to beat local rivals Napoli to guarantee safety. Although the arrival of a new coach had brought a handful of better performances, results were hard to come by.

In the run up to the game, DellaPeruta was nervous. She texted Moleka about her worries, genuine concerns about relegation. Her old coach rubbished her fears, saying he knew she would come up with a big moment.

“I said: ‘You know what, I know you're gonna make it happen. Because that's what you do’,” Moleka said.

And she did. At half time, prospects were grim, with Napoli leading 1-0. On the hour mark, though, DellaPeruta darted off the shoulder of the last defender, corralling a threaded pass, before lashing the ball into the top corner to equalize. Her goal awakened Pomigliano’s attack, and it scored twice more in the next 10 minutes to win 3-1 and avoid the drop.

“It's easy for your team to give up,” DellaPeruta said. “But everyone was motivated and fighting for each other. We scored and it was just up from there.”

That comeback-initiating goal was a near-perfect swansong in Serie A, an ideal conclusion to a campaign of vital goals that helped keep her team up.

“That was a huge moment that I'll remember forever,” DellaPeruta said.

Five months after her original trial with Pomigliano, DellaPeruta was trying to prove herself again. She was called up to Italy’s training camp ahead of the U20 European Championships, with a chance to make the squad for the tournament. Although she’d represented the Azzurri in a couple of friendlies, she was yet to don the shirt in competitive play.

It meant another relocation and a few more new faces. Her expectations were admittedly low, but in late June, coach Dario Falchinamed named her among the 20 players on the plane to the Czech Republic.

And in the 94th minute of Italy’s final group stage match, another moment came. DellaPeruta darted into space behind the Czech defense, before receiving the ball and cutting onto her right foot. The shot was a driven one, smacked firmly into the right corner.

It was another goal, another step in a burgeoning career.

“I'm still growing.”

Italy failed to make it out of the group stage of the tournament, a 2-2 tie with France denying qualification. DellaPeruta won a late penalty for her side to salvage a tie — but the team needed all three points to advance.

She will now turn to her original plan and enroll at North Carolina this fall. She will share the pitch with her sister, reunite with friends and family. There will be more familiar digs, a return to relative normalcy.

And after donning the shirt of the Italian national team, keeping a Serie A side up and embedding herself into a new culture, embracing the college game might not be too tricky.

“There's so much waiting for me there,” DellaPeruta said. “It's exciting to think about.”