Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating, 14 May 2006
This massive work gives a sweeping survey of the history of Italian football. Brilliantly written, Calcio is full of great anecdotes and thought-provoking, intelligent analysis without going into unnecessary detail. Calcio touches on every aspect of football in Italy and particuarly shines in the tragic rise and fall of Torino and the Superga tragedy. A story which is important in the story of not onyl Italian football but also in world football but yet maybe not widley known in the UK.
Key players are also covered in Calcio with splashes of humour as well as an assessment of their place and impact in Italian football. The real value of Calcio is that it gives you an accessible introduction of the history of Italian football and that it encourages you to read more on particular aspects of this subject.
A great read!!
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb insight into Italian football., 31 Jul 2006
To many people, Italian football is a mystery. On one hand, Italy has produced some of world football's best players and is home to the world's biggest clubs. The football is often beautiful and there is never a lack of passion. On the other it embraces the worst parts of the game with games often soiled with blatant cheating and racist fans.
Calcio does a very good job in attempting to shed light on the Italian mindset and the culture and society that spawned its approach to the beautiful game.
The author John Foot clearly has alot of love for the Italian game but that doesnt cloud his judgement of the dark side of the game. He is rightly outraged by the unchecked racism that has blighted the game since the 1990s. In fact the book really ecsells in the chapters on fan culture. He also delves into the scandals and murders that have occured within the game.
From the origins of Calcio through to the personalties who have shaped the game, such as Benito Mussolini and on to Silvio Berlusconi, Foot has created a detailed and enjoyaable account of Italian football. All the major players who have played the game including; Gianni Rivera, Giacinto Facchetti, Gigi Riva, Marco Van Bastin etc, are all examined.
This book is a superb journey into a football crazy nation highlighting some of the best and worst of Italian mentality. It is only a pity that this wasn't published until later so as to include the recent match fixing scandal, the largest in Italian history, and Italys triumph in the World Cup.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Appropriate for Britons. The rest of the world, not so much., 13 Mar 2008
I'm sympathetic towards the difficulty in getting in more information and pages in a book that already spans 500+ pages. I am, truly. But I feel there's a very misguided balance between what would be important in explaining Italian football and what the author feels just 'had' to be in there (see: seemingly endless words spent re-hashing the failures and few successes of British players in Italy).
I found it great in the beginning, but my enthusiasm quickly wore down as I progressed through the chapters and timeline of calcio. As items I am myself comfortable in my knowledge of came up, numerous mistakes on behalf of the author were exposed. I believe my final count of the different years mentioned for Roma's third scudetto win came to four, only mentioning the correct (2001) once. And there are many of these seemingly minor flaws (another that has stuck is the statement that Bologna is on the stockmarket; it is in fact probably the last club that would consider it, its presidents over the years leading the charge against the very 'financial doping' so very associated with the three clubs on the Milano stock exchange).
But the lack of understanding, on the part of the author, what's important is my main beef; a revolutionary coach such as Liedholm, who held such great esteem in his adopted country and was also a fantastic player in his day, 'godfather' of many of today's great coaches is mentioned only in passing. If I believed it to be intentional and not a very unfortunate overlook and miscalculation I'd deem it an insult of the highest magnitude. (Liedholm's fellow Swede at Milan in the 50's, Nordahl has been erased from Foot's history books, his incredible goal scoring record ignored and shunned, himself not even mentioned, as far as my memory serves, and if he was, like Liedholm only in passing).
But the book can probably serve well as a superficial reading for mainly a British audience who actually cares much for what Ian Rush wrote in his journal; I, most certainly, did not whatsoever.
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