Capello: Portrait Of A Winner


Book Description

Fabio Capello is a born winner. As a midfielder with Roma, Juventus and Milan, he won four Italian league championships and two cups, and played for his country 32 times, scoring a goal at Wembley in 1973 in Italy's first ever win in England. As a manager, Capello's fierce determination has seen him win championships with every club he has taken charge of, from Milan in the early 1990s to Real Madrid with David Beckham in 2007.Now he faces his greatest challenge yet: to restore England to the top of world football and take them to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010 - and win. For Capello, nothing less than the best will do. In Capello: Portrait of a Winner, award-winning writer Gabriele Marcotti travels from Capello's early days in Italy to the first months in his new job to tell the story of the man behind the steely glare. Capello has made more than a few enemies over the years, and Marcotti has talked to them all, as well as his closest associates. No-one has ever got this close to Capello before, and this is the story not just of a remarkable career, but of the life of a truly extraordinary man.




The European Game


Book Description

The European Game is an adventure. Over three months Dan Fieldsend travelled the continent discovering the methods for success used at some of the biggest clubs in Europe, from Ajax and Juventus, to Feyenoord, Inter Milan, Bayern Munch, Benfica, Athletic Bilbao and many more. At each institution he visited, Fieldsend delved to the very heart of what made the club tick, speaking to members of staff all the way up the hierarchical ladder, from scouts and academy coaches to first team managers, analysts and board members, pulling back the curtain to reveal their day to day workings. This book is about travel, about society, about identity and attachment. It comprises leadership, tactics, coaching and scouting as well as politics, finance, fandom and culture. This is a broad investigation into Europe's relationship with football and what nations can learn from one another, celebrating the uniqueness of football clubs around the continent and the culture of their nations, and exploring whether or not the methods they implement with success can be instilled in other domestic leagues.




What Happened to Serie A


Book Description

In the 1980s and 1990s, Serie A was known as 'Il campionato più bello del mondo' – the most beautiful championship in the world – and had the highest match attendances in Europe. The stadiums were not only full of people, but full of colour, flags, songs and rituals. Italy hosted World Cup 1990 and the stadia and stars on show in Serie A became iconic. Across a ten year period from 1989 to 1999 a remarkable 10 different Serie A clubs occupied nearly half the places in the finals of the Champions League and Europa Cup. They were dominant. But then in the 2000s they began to fall behind and despite the Azzurri winning the World Cup in 2006 and Inter Milan winning the Champions League in 2010, Italian football was on a downwards trajectory that saw the national team fail to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, their first absence from the tournament since 1958. What happened and why? In this extraordinary book, Steven G. Mandis investigates. Given unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to Italian clubs and key decision makers and players, Mandis is the first outside researcher to rigorously analyse both the on-the-pitch and business aspects of a club and league. What he learns is completely unexpected and challenges popular explanations and conventional wisdom.




Football Aims for the Stars


Book Description

The culmination of five years of research, this fascinating book reveals a side of football not explored before and explains why football coaches use astrology to gain a competitive edge. The result of 5 years of research, Football aims for the Stars shows how the constellations can affect planet football; find out why leading continental coaches believe they gain a competitive advantage by using astrology; explore the 12 paths to football success; understand what makes a telepathic partnership and, with examples including England 1966, Liverpool 1979, Manchester United 2007, and Barcelona 2009, see how a 'well balanced' team is built. This pioneering book will be essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in fulfilling their potential either as a player or coach. It will also provide fascinating insights for fans wishing to find out what they have in common with their heroes.




Hail, Claudio!


Book Description

Leicester City's Premier League victory was the 5,000-1 triumph that delighted the world. But how did Claudio Ranieri pull off one of the greatest achievements in sport? This is the inside story of the rise and rise of the butcher’s son from Rome, whose hard work, passion for the game and ability to learn from his mistakes have earned him the respect of players, fans and owners worldwide. Gabriele Marcotti and Alberto Polverosi have known Claudio Ranieri since his early days as a professional footballer. They have closely followed his successes and his failures as he navigated the often topsy-turvy world of football and developed as a player and manager. Hail, Claudio! takes an in-depth look into what sets Ranieri apart as a manager, into precisely how the Premier League was won, and what went wrong following that golden season.




The Blizzard - The Football Quarterly: Issue Two


Book Description

The Blizzard is a quarterly football publication, put together by a cooperative of journalists and authors, its main aim to provide a platform for top-class writers from across the globe to enjoy the space and the freedom to write what they like about the football stories that matter to them. Issue Two Contents ---------------- Le Blues ---------------- * Font of all Knowledge?, by Matt Spiro—The Clairefontaine academy was once the envy of the world, but has it gone stale? * What Makes a Nation?, by Philippe Auclair—The recent French race furore ignores the diversity of France's footballing culture ---------------- Interview ---------------- * Dragan Stojković—Andrew McKirdy talks to Dragan Stojković about his philosophical similarities to Arsène Wenger, his lost years and Japan's development -------------------- In Argentina -------------------- * Óscar Bravo, by Jonathan Wilson—How Óscar Washington Tabárez led Uruguay to Copa América glory as Argentina and Brazil misfired * La Historia de los Piñeyros, by Rupert Fryer—A fictional account of one family's experience of the 1978 World Cup ------------------ The Media ------------------ * The Man who Said it was Magnificent, by Rob Smyth—Barry Davies relives some old memories and discusses the state of modern commentary * The Man who Made Calcio, by James Horncastle—How Gianni Brera shaped the language and style of Italian football * The Man who Ate his Hat, by Scott Murray—The story of Lieutenant Commander Tommy Woodrooffe, the BBC's first football commentator --------------------------------- Back From The Brink --------------------------------- * Football to Remember, by Uli Hesse—How Borussia Dortmund returned from the verge of extinction to win the Bundesliga title ------------- Theory ------------- * Wenger, l'Auteur, by Miguel Delaney—What Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Cimino and the Hollywood of the seventies tell us about Arsenal * Brazil, and the Rise of the Back Four, by Rob Sweeney—How foreign influences led to the evolution of the back four in Brazil -------------- Italia 90 -------------- * A Sentimental Journey, by Gabriele Marcotti—The 1990 World Cup as experienced by a teenage Italian ---------------- Polemics ---------------- * Is Football Still Sport?, by Rory Smith—It unfolds like a soap opera for the entertainment of millions and the profit of a few. What has football become? * Too Fast, Too Furious?, by James Grossi—Why have so many creative players suffered such dreadful injuries in the MLS this season? ----------------------------- Football Manager ----------------------------- * The Ballad of Bobby Manager: My Autobiography, by Iain Macintosh—When somebody takes their game of Football Manager just a little too seriously... -------------------------- Greatest Games -------------------------- * St Étienne 3 Dynamo Kiev 0 (aet), by James Horncastle—European Cup quarter-final second-leg, Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, St Étienne, 17 March 1976 ------------------- Eight Bells ------------------- * Finals Before the Final, by Jacob Steinberg—A selection of eight games that really shouldn't have been wasted on the earlier rounds







Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen!


Book Description

In this perfectly pitched novel-in-letters, autistic eleven-year-old Vivy Cohen won't let anything stop her from playing baseball--not when she has a major-league star as her pen pal. Vivy Cohen is determined. She's had enough of playing catch in the park. She's ready to pitch for a real baseball team. But Vivy's mom is worried about Vivy being the only girl on the team, and the only autistic kid. She wants Vivy to forget about pitching, but Vivy won't give up. When her social skills teacher makes her write a letter to someone, Vivy knows exactly who to choose: her hero, Major League pitcher VJ Capello. Then two amazing things happen: A coach sees Vivy's amazing knuckleball and invites her to join his team. And VJ starts writing back! Now Vivy is a full-fledged pitcher, with a catcher as a new best friend and a steady stream of advice from VJ. But when a big accident puts her back on the bench, Vivy has to fight to stay on the team.




The Italian Job


Book Description

From Vialli, one of Italy's most famous footballers as well as a former manager of England's Chelsea F.C., and Marcotti, the UK correspondent for Corriere dello Sport and football columnist for The Times, comes this unique journey to the heart of two great soccer cultures.