While delving into the RamZone archives recently I discovered one of my favourite series of columns that focused on football related publications. From Clough to Keane, over the next eight weeks some great round ball reads will be reviewed by Elaine Dean starting with a trip to Verona.

Much was written and made of when Chievo, a suburban team from Verona made it into Serie A and indeed this was quite an achievement for a provincial ‘second’ club.

However, the Miracle of Castel di Sangro is about an even more remarkable achievement – the elevation to Serie B of a very small town team from high up in the remote Abruzzi mountains.

This book SHOCKS – in many ways, and the progress through their first season would be dismissed as ‘too far fetched’ if it wasn’t written by a highly respected American journalist who spent the best part of a year living in Castel di Sangro as an ‘honoured’ guest of the club.

Joe McGinniss is the international best selling author of the true crime classics ‘Blind Faith’, ‘Fatal Vision’ and ‘The Selling of the President’ – his account of the 1968 American election.
He became addicted to football during the 1990 World Cup, along with so many others who remember the magic of Italia 90; Gazza’s tears, Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma and the worldwide rebirth and almost rebranding of football.

His obsession became total in World Cup USA 1994 when he became mesmorised by Roberto Baggio and the Italian team and game in general.

McGinniss gave up several extremely lucrative commissions plus life with his wife and three children in Massachusetts to go and live in Italy to write a book about the remarkable achievement of Castel di Sangrio’s surprise appearance in Serie B during the 1996-7 season.

The ‘miracle’ refers to the saving of a penalty in a play-off from Serie C that saw the tiny side promoted to within touching distance of Baggio, the San Siro and all that is revered in Italian football.

McGinniss’s destination was a tiny town 3,000 feet above sea level in an area described as “inaccessibility extreme even by the standards of the Abruzzo.”

Winter lasts from October to May and it is bounded by the Abruzzi National Park on one side where wild bears, wolves and thirty species of reptile roam.

Frommer’s 1996 Guide To Italy describes the Abruzzo thus:

“…one of the poorest and least visited regions…..arid and sunscorched and prone to frequent earthquakes…..impoverished and visually stark”

Another guidebook says ‘it is a region in which there is little of interest to see and even less to do’.

The Abruzzi mountains are high and unyielding, the highest peak Monte Amaro reaches almost 10,000 feet and a fierce wind blows all year round and driving snowstorms keep casual visitors away.

Author Tim Jepson described the Abruzzo as “ …still a land that could provide settings for a dozen fairy tales with its wolves and bears and sturdy country folk”.

Other authors describe it as ‘having been deserted by emigrants for more prosperous regions…leaving behind people who are clannish and atavistic and introspective’.

It is a long, long way away from Massachusetts and the glitzy, fast American lifestyle.

McGinniss’s account of an AC Milan fanatic he met and his journey to the town are worth reading the book for alone, along with his early struggles with the language and his hilarious account of moving into a ‘guest house’ in the town who clearly didn’t wish to have guests.

This book *really* lifts the lid on the scandals of Italian football, on the domination of ‘godfathers’ across Italy and the resignation of the Italians to the situation. They accept corruption as a way of life and can’t understand the mentality of foreigners who wish to question it. “It is the way it is, it always has been and always will be” is the way they shrug off queries.

This is another Italy -  far, far removed from the magnificent cities of Rome, Florence and Venice, from the magnificent Renaissance buildings and works of art, from the glamour of Milan, the industry of Turin and all the other facets of Italy that attract tourists in their millions.

McGinniss eats and travels with the team, although he is very closely watched but nevertheless treated with respect because his forthcoming book will put the spotlight on the town and club.
He becomes extremely close to the players but not so close to the manager whose bizarre team selections baffle him all season and who both abuses and hails him in turns.

Of course, he soon discovers that there is a ‘godfather’ even at this little club, a remote figure originating from Naples who lives in a fortress like mountain estate who has a ‘lieutenant’ who does the dirty work and bodyguards galore.

Joe McGinniss becomes frightfully outspoken about matters and you wonder how he ever got out of there to write his book without having met some fearful fate.

The season unfolds slowly and absorbingly, a tale of mysterious team selections, hatred of foreign players, overt racism, corruption, scandals, unexplained injuries and inexplicable refereeing decisions.

Add to this the tragic deaths of two of the small squad, the arrest and incarceration of one of the players’ wives for trafficking cocaine, the arrest and detention of the player himself, a mysterious life threatening illness to a key player who may have spoken out and his ‘detention’ in an unknown Roman clinic and you have all the ingredients for a compulsive who-dunnit – but this book is TRUE.

Some of the best bits are the meals eaten at Marcella’s and the camaraderie between the players and entourage and the frank accounts of the team coach trips and travels.

It is possibly one of the best football books ever written, and has an extremely disturbing ending.

Anyone reading this book will never watch Italian football with the same eyes again.

Next Week:

The Beautiful Game: Searching for the Soul of Football

If you have read a great or even not so great football related book (any team, player or subject!) and would like to recommend or warn RamZone readers then we would love you to submit a review.

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