An absolutely barn-storming book that beggars belief at times but is truly a fascinating insight into a story that has a bit of everything about it. There are few 5-star reviews out there but this was was given without hesitation as it was a book that kept you gripped throughout and got you thinking about it even when you were having a break from reading it. Firstly, back when this was written in 2000, Football (or soccer as it is to American's) was a game that struggled to reach a wider audience across the pond and so for the author to pick up on the sport with little of its history and with no deeper knowledge of the game and carve out a unique and wonderful story that just captivates the reader is a true work of art.

The story of little known Castle Di Sangro, a small provincial town football club with no prior history in the Italian game to work its way through the amateur ranks to the heady heights of Serie B where for some inexplicable reason, they allowed an American Journalist to intimately share and document their season in with the likes of Torino, Bari and Genoa. Mix that in with a mafia-like feel to those behind the scenes who seem to be doing anything but supporting the side as they struggle to stave off relegation whilst also having to deal with stadium renovations that take an age to finish, deal with the lack of money that hinders them in bringing players of sufficient quality in, alongside some events that wouldn't seem out of place in a circus.

Of course, the author plays a huge part in this story with his own thoughts on how the game should be played but who can blame the players and staff for their obvious disdain at an American Journalist quite firmly saying how they should play and what they are doing wrong. Its the old everyone is a 'Football Manager' syndrome, only Joe McGinnis actually got to influence decisions at times. There is of course a deep sense of sadness in the book with the untimely death of a couple of the stars midway through the season and this to a degree brings everyone together and allows them the opportunity to stave off the relegation that they so richly sought to accomplish, though as the book tells you at the end, it ultimately ended in relegation the following season.

The book brings into life the deep and mixed relationships that are there between not only the author and the players and staff but also many other characters with lots of subplots all around from criminal activity to suspected match-fixing and the love that everyone has for a simple game that is at the heart of a community. How this book has yet to be adapted into a movie, I'll never know. It deserves to be though the argument is there that it wouldn't be classed as a sports movie but that of a fantasy movie as that is at times what it really boils down too. It may be over 20 years old this book, but I can assure any reader that this book is MUST READ!!