Focus on Diego Perotti: The charm and grace of the No. 8

Diego Perotti defies description. Diego Perotti has a charisma, a beauty you cannot ignore.

Maybe it's not beauty in the classic goals and glory mould; perhaps it's more like the understated conductor whose style draws your gaze for reasons you can't fully explain. There's something about Diego Perotti. Something wonderful.

Diego Perotti is synonymous with last season's away match at Sassuolo. He joined Roma on the last day of the January transfer window, was thrust into his debut 24 hours later, and immediately came to the fore - laying on a goal for Stephan El Shaarawy.

The word 'assist' in the statistics column doesn't do him justice. We're better off talking you through it.

He ran down the right flank, leaving Francesco Acerbi on his backside with a sharp drop of the shoulder, before spotting his team-mate in the middle and producing a feathered cross that only required the merest of touches.

2-0... game over.

Diego Perotti is about efficiency - frills and skills only used when necessary. Sure, he can pull off a rabona when he needs to, or play a no-look pass to team-mate if he wants, but only because that's the most effective piece of play at that moment in time.

Perotti always wants the ball to feet - wherever he is on the park. He's not afraid to try something. He goes for it and almost never gets it wrong.

Diego Perotti steps up. Roma win a penalty with the scoreline goalless and he tucks the ball under his arm as if he were in the school playground. It's his. Diego Perotti calmly strolls towards the penalty spot. He calmly finishes.

Diego Perotti has grace. Unadultered grace on the football pitch and with the shirt on his back. No. 8 seems so fitting; like two footballs, one on top of the other.

Only the classiest players wear No. 8. Cesare Augusto Fasanelli, Alejandro Scopelli, Paolo Pestrin, Francisco Locajono, Dino Da Costa, Egisto Pandolfini, Herbert Prohaska, Toninho Cerezo, Carlo Ancelotti and Hidetoshi Nakata all wore it for the Giallorossi. Good players, albeit ones without their names in lights.

Diego Perotti rarely cracks a smile. People claim, "Diego Perotti doesn't score enough." Today he's top scorer on two goals. He had never before struck a brace for Roma.

Diego Perotti is simply someone who can really play football.