Product Description

Through 1996 and 1997 bestselling author Joe Mc Ginniss followed the Italian football season from Castel di Sangro, a small town nestled in the Abruzzi region of Italy. The motley crew that comprised the di Sangro soccer team in the early 90s masked an unparalleled prowess for playing soccer. This is the story of a team and a town with no aspirations, just a passion for the game, and how that passion allowed this team to rise to the top of the professional Italian soccer league. With the lust for life of Robert Crichton's THE SECRET OF SANTA VITTORIA and the sporting dreams of modern movie classic FIELDS OF DREAMS, THE MIRACLE OF CASTEL DI SANGRO is an ebullient story of how a two-hour game transformed a dot on the map into a place of magic, miracles and wonder.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24404 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
'This wonderful, compelling book seems destined to join the shortlist of football classics' INDEPENDENT 'A gripping and engaging tale' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'The most essential football book other than FEVER PITCH and THE GLORY GAME' FOUR-FOUR-TWO MAGAZINE 'reads like good fiction.' OBSERVER 'the football book of 1999' INDEPENDENT 'the most bizarre, yet enchanting, football story ever to hit the bookshelves.' IRISH INDEPENDENT 'Joe McGinnis has written an extraordinary book.' WORLD SOCCER 'a fascinating read.' SPORT FIRST 'It's part travelogue, part intrigue, part romance, part grim reality, but always calcio. Absorbing.' DAILY TELEGRAPH

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
* 'A gripping and engaging tale'

FourFourTwo magazine
* 'The most essential football book other than FEVER PITCH and THE GLORY GAME'

Customer Reviews

The beautiful game?
The first season spent in the dizzy heights of Serie B, in their entire history, by Castel Di Sangro is shared by American writer Joe McGinniss in this fascinating book.

McGinniss spends the entire 1996/97 season in the small hamlet of Castel Di Sangro. It's calcio (football to you and me, maybe soccer to the author) club is at the very heart of this remarkable tale of survival. The author gets so close to the team though that the book is about far more than football. Lies, deception, scandal and tragedy all come to the fore whilst the footballing miracle unfolds.

In fact, so much unfolds between September 1996 and May 1997, that you will not want to do anything else but read on. The book, by and large, seems to be written with the American audience in mind, which in actual fact helps the tale have small respites for avid football followers. The season is described chronologically, which again makes the story very readable.

The only negative is that the author, despite by his own admission being new to the sport, seems to consider himself an expert in the game. Frequently he describes how he told the manager to do this or that, and seems genuinely surprised when the experienced Italian coach rebuffs his ideas.

Overall, a fascinating tale of an almost surreal season for Castel Di Sangro. Joe McGinniss is welcomed so much into the heart of the community and club, that we find out a great deal about the activities of a small Italian football club, in this intelligently written story.

Bella!
This is a fantastic read and literally has you sat on the edge of your seat trying to guess what will happen next. The first season of lowly Castel Di Sangro in Serie B of the Italian football league is a roller coaster ride and ends with a fantastic twist. The reviews of each league game are brilliantly written and really do have you screaming for the final whistle and a win for Castel.

The book goes into slightly too much detail about the basics of football at times but this obviously increases its target audience to those who don't know too much about the game. It really is a great read and a fascinating true story. The only blemish is the author who clearly knows little about European football and the passion which surrounds it. It is almost embarrassing at times to listen to his opinions and points of view as he is very often misguided and uninformed. Saying that, it adds a bit extra to the story as you get sucked into the politics and passion of Italian football.

Miracle gone wrong
I loved this book from the minute I turned over the first page. Castel di Sangro have just been promoted to the seria B and now they must fight to stay here. An american writer joins them to write about their season in quest of "la salvezza" or not being relegated to a lower division.

McGinniss really captures the italian attitude to life and football (though maybe not in that order). You can just imagine the footballers shrugging their shoulders in that italian fashion at points throughout the book as they attempt to explain italian life to the author. You are rooting for the team at the end of the season as they fight to keep their heads above water, and as the club ownership conspire against the team.

The drawback of this book is the authors self-righteousness and his belief that he could have at times picked a better team than the manager. Maybe he could, but it wasn't his place to say so. He seems to have left the small town on a really sour note that was all of his own doing. He tried to fight against the mafiosa style system in place, and lost out.

Other than that, it's a great tale, at times hilarious, not just of football, but of life.