The Man Behind England's World Cup Dream

Capello

The story behind the new England football manager, by the man best qualified to write it.

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."

The Don Uncovered... Intriguing insight into England's enigmatic coach... A thought-provoking, impeccably researched book on an enigmatic subject

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

Marcotti has an unrivalled network of contacts, and writes with authority and style... an intriguing portrait

Extremely detailed, well-researched, informative and entertaining

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.

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.

Capello: Portrait Of A Winner

The first ever biography of the new England football manager, by the man best qualified to write it.

Easily the most successful club manager ever to coach England, Fabio Capello won Italy's Serie A seven times with AC Milan, Juventus and Roma, and Spain's La Liga twice with Real Madrid - nine league titles in 15 seasons. So what led him to oversee a national team without a major trophy for more than 40 years? One of the strengths of this expertly researched biography is that such enigmas are pondered in a very Italian way, which revels in the availability of several answers rather than grasping for a single truth. In this case, Marcotti suggests managing Italy did not appeal, and points to Capello's long-standing affection for English football and his love of big cities. Other puzzles (was he really unaware that Juventus's boss was fixing matches?) receive similarly complex examination. Capello emerges as a pragmatic imitator rather than an innovator, a mix of sophisticate and martinet - padding around art galleries on his days off, but a believer in "putting a razor blade up against players' arses" if they let him down.

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, Setanta and Sky Sports News. 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.

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 Italian Job

A journey to the heart of two great footballing cultures.

The book is essentially a memoir but with the aid of some really interesting interviews...it gives some astonishing insights into the workings of the modern game

The Italian Job reveals how rival cultures in England and abroad are reflected on the pitch

Gianluca Vialli's new book is an interesting comparison of sporting attitudes here and on the Continent - To the Italian player, football is a job: to the English one, it's a game

...this fascinating book that analyses the difference between English and Italian football...The Italian Job tackles the questions which inform football debate in England and Italy - from the tactical and technical to the cultural and sociological

An early contender for this year's literary prizes in sport

Vialli (aided by noted Italian football writer Gabrielle Marcotti) has fixed his inquisitive mind on exploring the differences between English and Italian football cultures, covering everything from tactics to supporters

The most thoughtful book by a footballer I can remember reading

Interesting look at the relationship between football and culture in both Italy and England

A fascinating examination of football in England and Italy...the result is a thoughtful, thorough examination

...deeper than your average footballer's autobiography, it is far from impenetrable and appeals to a wider audience than just die-hard Chelsea fans...Marcotti's prose is both entertaining and informative for the smarter-than-average armchair supporter

Gianluca Vialli is one of the most famous Italian footballers in the post-war era. He won league titles with Sampdoria and Juventus and captained Juventus to Champions' League victory in 1996. At international level he won 59 caps for Italy, scoring 16 goals and leading them to the semi-finals of both the 1988 European Championship and the 1990 World Cup. As a manager, in two and a half seasons at Chelsea he won more trophies than any other manager in the history of the club, including the FA Cup, Cupwinners' Cup and League Cup. He currently divides his time between London and Italy where he is the top analyst for Sky Italia's Serie A and Champions' League coverage. 
Gianluca is donating proceeds from The Italian Job to the Fondazione Vialli e Mauro per la Ricerca e lo Sport (www.fondazionevialliemauro.com), a charitable foundation set up by Gianluca and Massimo Mauro, which raises funds for research into cancer and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. 
 
Gabriele Marcotti is the UK correspondent for Corriere dello Sport, and World Football columnist for The Times. He has also written for the Financial Times, Sunday Herald, Daily Mail and La Stampa. He co-presents two weekly radio shows on TalkSport and is a regular analyst on Bravo, Setanta and SkySports News. He is also a columnist for Sports Illustrated.

Football lies at the heart of popular culture in both England and Italy. It is played, watched, written about and talked to death by millions virtually every day of the year. But how do the characteristics of England and Italy affect the game in these two footballing nations? Do the national stereotypes of Italians as passionate, stylish lotharios and the English as cold-hearted eccentrics still hold true when they kick a ball around? 
In The Italian Job, for the first time, a footballer of the first rank, Gianluca Vialli, in conjunction with sportswriter and broadcaster Gabriele Marcotti, tackles this debate head on. Uniquely positioned across both the English and the Italian games, they provide a fascinating and highly controversial commentary on where football is now and where it's headed. And they have invited some of the biggest names in the sport to join in their discussion. Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, Sven Goran Eriksson, Fabio Capello and Marcello Lippi, amongst others, add their not inconsiderable weight to the highest-profile symposium on football ever convened. 
Gianluca Vialli and Gabriele Marcotti explore every aspect of football, be it tactical and technical or cultural and sociological. Stuffed full of controversial opinions and gripping revelations, The Italian Job takes you on a journey to the very heart of two of the world's great footballing cultures.

Gabriele Marcotti

Alberto Polverosi

In this inside account, it is Ranieri’s steadiness and dignity that impress most.

The Manager Behind the Miracle

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.

Gabriele Marcotti

Praise for Hail, Claudio!

In this inside account, it is Ranieri’s steadiness and dignity that impress most.

Books by Gabriele Marcotti

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