Product Description

Football lies at the heart of popular culture in both England and Italy. It is played, watched, written about and talked to death by millions virtually every day of the year. But how do the characteristics of England and Italy affect the game in these two footballing nations? Do the national stereotypes of Italians as passionate, stylish lotharios and the English as cold-hearted eccentrics still hold true when they kick a ball around? In "The Italian Job", for the first time, a footballer of the first rank, Gianluca Vialli, in conjunction with sportswriter and broadcaster Gabriele Marcotti, tackles this debate head on. Uniquely positioned across both the English and the Italian games, they provide a fascinating and highly controversial commentary on where football is now and where it's headed. And they have invited some of the biggest names in the sport to join in their discussion. Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, Sven Goran Eriksson, Fabio Capello and Marcello Lippi, amongst others, add their not inconsiderable weight to the highest-profile symposium on football ever convened. Gianluca Vialli and Gabriele Marcotti explore every aspect of football, be it tactical and technical or cultural and sociological. Stuffed full of controversial opinions and gripping revelations, "The Italian Job" takes you on a journey to the very heart of two of the world's great footballing cultures.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37209 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

From the Inside Flap
Football lies at the heart of popular culture in both England and Italy. It is played, watched, written about and talked to death by millions virtually every day of the year. But how do the characteristics of England and Italy affect the game in these two footballing nations? Do the national stereotypes of Italians as passionate, stylish lotharios and the English as cold-hearted eccentrics still hold true when they kick a ball around?

In The Italian Job, for the first time, a footballer of the first rank, Gianluca Vialli, in conjunction with sportswriter and broadcaster Gabriele Marcotti, tackles this debate head on. Uniquely positioned across both the English and the Italian games, they provide a fascinating and highly controversial commentary on where football is now and where it’s headed. And they have invited some of the biggest names in the sport to join in their discussion. Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, Sven Goran Eriksson, Fabio Capello and Marcello Lippi, amongst others, add their not inconsiderable weight to the highest-profile symposium on football ever convened.

Gianluca Vialli and Gabriele Marcotti explore every aspect of football, be it tactical and technical or cultural and sociological. Stuffed full of controversial opinions and gripping revelations, The Italian Job takes you on a journey to the very heart of two of the world’s great footballing cultures.

From the Back Cover
Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2006

Football is a vital part of popular culture in both England and Italy. It is played, watched, written about and talked to death by millions, every day of every year. But how do the characteristics of England and Italy affect the game in these two great footballing nations? Do the national stereotypes of Italians as passionate, stylish lotharios and the English as cold-hearted eccentrics still hold true when they kick a ball around?

In The Italian Job, Gianluca Vialli, in conjunction with sportswriter and broadcaster Gabriele Marcotti, tackles this debate head on. And they have invited some of the biggest names in the sport to join in their discussion. Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Arsène Wenger, Sven-Göran Eriksson, Fabio Capello and Marcello Lippi, amongst others, add their not inconsiderable weight to the highest-profile symposium on football ever convened.

Stuffed full of controversial opinions and gripping revelations, and fully updated to cover World Cup 2006 and the Italian football league controversy, The Italian Job takes you on a journey to the very heart of two of the world’s great footballing cultures.

About the Author
Gianluca Vialli is one of the most famous Italian footballers in the post-war era. He won league titles with Sampdoria and Juventus and captained Juventus to Champions' League victory in 1996. At international level he won 59 caps for Italy, scoring 16 goals and leading them to the semi-finals of both the 1988 European Championship and the 1990 World Cup. As a manager, in two and a half seasons at Chelsea he won more trophies than any other manager in the history of the club, including the FA Cup, Cupwinners' Cup and League Cup. He currently divides his time between London and Italy where he is the top analyst for Sky Italia's Serie A and Champions' League coverage. Gianluca is donating proceeds from The Italian Job to the Fondazione Vialli e Mauro per la Ricerca e lo Sport (www.fondazionevialliemauro.com), a charitable foundation set up by Gianluca and Massimo Mauro, which raises funds for research into cancer and Amiotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Gabriele Marcotti is the UK correspondent for Corriere dello Sport, and World Football columnist for The Times. He has also written for the Financial Times, Sunday Herald, Daily Mail and La Stampa. He co-presents two weekly radio shows on TalkSport and is a regular analyst on Bravo, Setanta and SkySports News. He is also a columnist for Sports Illustrated.

Customer Reviews

Fabulous!
This book is not an autobiography, like so many others we've read before. This is a case of a successul player and manager, Vialli, teaming up with a journalist, Marcotti, to gain unparalleled and honest access to some of the finest minds in the game today: Mourinho, Ferguson, Wenger, Capello, Lippi etc. They're honest and frank when assessing some of the problems and issues facing the game today and Vialli uses their input as a platform to explore some of the most basic questions in football.
Throughout, ever the perfectionist, Vialli presents meticulous research to back up his views, such as disproving the myth that better weather in Italy produces more technical players or providing evidence that in Italy managers are sacked far more often but have less trouble getting back into the game.
This book moves past football, looking at basic cultural differences and how they are changing and converging over time. It's an excellent read for anyone who enjoys the game and isn't afraid to ask themselves difficult questions.

Completely Fascinating !!
Having purchased this book hoping to increase my somewhat "patchy" knowledge of Italian football, all I can say is congratulations to Messrs. Vialli and Marcotti!! A fascinating insight into the differences between two footballing cultures which highlights the gulf between them. Any fan of the beautiful game will enjoy this book, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.
P.S. If Italy win the World Cup on 09/07/06, this book will give you an insight into how they did it!!

Brilliant Read
Awesome read up untill now and I'm still reading it, i suggest anyone buying it if they are pretty much intrested in how the Italians & English go on about there football.
Includes one of my favourite journalists out there "Gabrielle Marcotti" aswell..