Julián Speroni

Dundee

Speroni was born in Buenos Aires. He started his career with Club Atlético Platense, in his homeland, but moved after just one year as a professional and two matches, to Scottish side Dundee. Dundee manager Ivano Bonetti received advice from an Italian contact to Speroni's potential. The move to Dundee was delayed for two months, due to administration delays in Argentina, holding up Speroni's application for an Italian passport.

Speroni made his debut for the club, starting the whole game, in a 1–1 draw against Falkirk in the third round of Scottish Cup on 6 January 2002. In a follow–up, he kept his first Dundee's clean sheet, in a 1–0 win against Hibernian. Since joining the club, he quickly became Dundee's first choice goalkeeper for the rest of the 2001–02 season, having successfully dispatch the role from Jamie Langfield. During a 2–2 draw against Dunfermline Athletic on 13 February 2002, Speroni was punched in the face by Stevie Crawford after Crawford tried to wrestle the ball from Speroni, resulting him being sent–off in the 74th minute. The club's owner Peter Marr said about the player: "He has done very well and we will do what we can to come up with a deal that keeps him here." It came after when Serie A club Inter Milan was interested in signing him earlier this year. Despite Dundee's poor performance for the rest of the 2001–02 season that saw them finish in ninth place, he proved to be one of the positive highlights for the club and went on to…

After leaving Crystal Palace, Speroni said that he ruled out hanging up his boots and was willing to play in his forties. However, after not finding another club he announced his retirement from professional football after playing for 20 years. Speroni previously hinted that he would be moving to coaching once in his playing time is over. In October 2022 he returned to Crystal Palace as a coach within the club's academy system.

In November 1998, Speroni was named in the squad for a friendly against Japan U20 in Tokyo. In December 1998, he was called into the Argentina U20 pre-selection squad for the 1999 South American U-20 Championship, Argentina's under 20 team played friendlies against Hungary and Denmark. On 30 December José Pékerman did not name him in the final squad. Speroni made one appearance for the Argentina U20 team, and said on two separate interviews that he would like to get a call–up from the senior team, but was not considered throughout his professional career. Both managers Warnock and Paul Hart called on Maradona to give him a place for the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina to working-class parents, Speroni said he spoke about positivity on his childhood. Growing up, he began playing football when he was eight years old and joined a school football club. He at one point almost quit playing football but his coach convinced him otherwise, as he enjoyed playing football. Speroni also revealed that he grew up watching Serie A football because of its popularity in the country and was a boyhood Boca Juniors supporter. Speroni also holds an Italian passport, for which he qualified through his grandfather. He is a Christian and also on the board of reference for Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), an organisation working for religious freedom through advocacy and human rights. In addition to speaking Spanish, he speaks English. Speroni is married to his childhood sweetheart, Marina, an artist. Together, they have three children and all of them were born in England. Speroni owned a restaurant in Purley, south London that was named "Speroni's". He describes the restaurant as "mixture of Italian and Spanish", due to his background. The restaurant closed in October 2016 following "structural issues". Speroni also took part in charity work during his playing career at Crystal Palace.