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Calcio: A History of Italian Football
by: John Foot

Price: £17.99

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Used Price: £17.98
Third Party New Price: £17.99

Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9780007175741
ISBN: 0007175744
Label: Fourth Estate Ltd
Manufacturer: Fourth Estate Ltd
Number Of Pages: 565
Publication Date: April 03, 2006
Publisher: Fourth Estate Ltd
Studio: Fourth Estate Ltd
Sales Rank: 222826

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Facts wrong, Dates Wrong. A Mess.
This book is so dull that it would actually be more interesting to watch it being pulped than to read it. Worse than that, it is wrong on several counts. Foot gets his dates wrong, claiming that Fabio Capello moves from Roma to Juventus "in the 2003-4 close season." He is a year early. Historians getting dates wrong are like bakers who can't make bread, though I might have forgiven him that if there hadn't been so much else wrong with the book.
More disturbingly, his treatment of important events such as the Heysel disaster is highly unsatisfactory. He fails to highlight the missed warnings - Brussels newspaper Le Soir warned of an "apocalypse" on the morning of the match. He fails to point out that Brussels Fire Chief Alain Gibson had ... Read More:

Rating:

- essential for the history of italian footy
Of all the books on the market about Italian football (and there are plenty) this is perhaps the best of the lot. It's a comprehensive guide not only about the football but of history and society as a whole. John Foot has gone to a lot of effort with this book and it is a worthy addition to any collection. We're treated to the usual history of scandal and match-fixing which is synonomous with the Italian game.

Rating:

- Entertaining and well-paced read.
I have just finished reading this book (the updated edition with Cannavaro lifting the World Cup on the cover.) The author obviously knows his calcio. As a follower of Italian football I found this book to be a very fluid read and allowed me to discover the foundations of the game in Italy, the great teams of the past (Torino, Inter, Genoa, Juventus), the managers and players who helped make the game what is is today, wrapped in an analysis of the social and political context of the country.

I thought the author wrote very well and at a level which would be engaging for the layperson. Of course, when dealing with a history of a subject, it is difficult not to write in a style which some readers might find list-like. I didn't and ... Read More:

Rating:

- Appropriate for Britons. The rest of the world, not so much.
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, ... Read More:

Rating:

- Pure Joy
This book is a wonderful read. Even my wife, who hates football, enjoyed it. I've read an awful lot of books, from Dostoevsky to detectives, and can't remember too many that gave me so much pleasure. A word of warning; don't let anyone borrow it as you'll never get it back.

Books : Calcio: A History of Italian Football