Capello: The Man Behind England's World Cup Dream

Description

The story behind the new England football manager, by the man best qualified to write it. 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 - nine of them in 16 years - with every club he has taken charge of, from the great Milan team he helped create in the early 1990s to Real Madrid with David Beckham in 2007. Now he faces his greatest challenge yet, the challenge that he has said is his long-cherished dream, and the last of his glittering coaching career. To restore England to the top of the world football tree, to take his adopted country to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, and to win it. For Capello, nothing less than the best will do. For England, it is win or bust. And you don't want to lose under Capello. In this, the first ever biography of the new England manager, award-winning writer Gabriele Marcotti travels from Capello's early days in Italy to his first months in his new job at Soho Square to tell the story of the man behind the steely glare, the method behind the sometimes manic behaviour. Capello's drive for success at any cost has seen him make 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.

Gabriele Marcotti is the World Football Correspondent for The Times and UK correspondent for the Corriere dello Sport. He is also a columnist for Sports Illustrated, presents a weekly show on BBC Radio Five Live and is a regular analyst on Bravo, Sky Sports News and ITV's Champions League coverage. His books include The Italian Job- A Journey to the Heart of Two Great Footballing Cultures, co-written with Gianluca Vialli and also published by Bantam Press, which was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award in 2006.

Marcotti, an Italian football writer living in London, was born to write this book. He researched it in terrifying detail, like an American biography. One conclusion about Capello: "No grudges are ever held and you are only ever judged on performance." * Financial Times * The Don Uncovered... Intriguing insight into England's enigmatic coach... A thought-provoking, impeccably researched book on an enigmatic subject * FourFourTwo * This is a formidable piece of journalism mixing library research, expansive football knowledge, dozens of interviews with Capello eyewitnesses and even a few titbits from the man himself. Marcotti goes beyond the superficial public assumptions about his subject... this is a serious book about a serious chap... a detailed and lucid analysis -- Pete May * Football 365 * Meticulously researched -- Brian Viner * Independent * Marcotti has an unrivalled network of contacts, and writes with authority and style... an intriguing portrait -- Liam Doyle * The Bookseller *