you should read the perldoc of split. It can do some magic..., especially when you use $_ as expression; you don't need to bother with leading whitespaces (which might be unwanted in the resulting list)

my $line = " 0 10 9 4 1 0 0 0 2 2 1 1 0";
my @config = ();

{ # dedicated block because localizing some variables ($_)
  local $_ = $line;
  @config = split;
}

# some code using @config

{ # dedicated block because localizing some variables ($, and $\)
  # show result; 
  local $, = local $\ = $/;
  print @config;
}
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update: code comments added

update2: see moritz' answer for the better solution whithout localizing $_