The Miracle of Castel di Sangro: A Tale of Passion and Folly in the Heart of Italy

Inside there is a great story of uncelebrated heroes, and villians, behind what might be considered the more mundane situation -- that a soccer team from a small village manages promotion to a B league with the season-long goal of surviving. Along the way, there are many great details of the local players, supporters, life within Serie B soccer, and the fabric of society in a small, working-class Italian hillside town. Set on this smaller stage, the story has it all -- life, death, compassion, greed, character, and corruption -- woven together with many amusing and curious subtexts and insights about a "strainero" trying to fit in to a whole other culture and language.The story is a great success at real-life drama. The only unfortunate part is that the story slowly unravels how much the author completely blew a real opportunity to fit in more and delve deeper beneath the surface of his adopted society -- opting more and more to impose his own self-righteous mindset and judgement on matters (he was as much a "bulldozer" as he accused the soccer team's manager of being) rather than taking a step back to learn more about the inner workings of another culture. This isn't ethnocentrism or even an example of American arrogance -- the author simply self-destructed at his mission to respect, observe, and ask in order to learn and report.Even so, the book is a great success in spite of the author's mistakes. He gained access to a remote, close-knit community amidst the throes of of several major events -- also capturing moments of great humor. The author's detailed accounting of his conversations and experiences there makes it a fascinating story in its own right.

During the sixties Joe Mc Ginniss wrote about presidential campaigns and the selling of the president. He made a marvellous and unexpected comeback in 1999 with his The Miracle of Castel di Sangro. You will never regret buying this wonderful book about soccer in an isolated moutain region in Italy. Joe Mc Ginniss spends the season with this astonishing soccer team. In fact he depicts soccer as one of the pillars of communal life in this very peculiar village- like setting. But it is not an innocent setting. Innocence is definitely lost in this part of the continent and Mc Ginniss produces remarkable characters. The owner, Signor Rezza, straight out of the Sopranos, the coach Osvaldo Jaconi, "to argue with him is like throwing pebbles at a bulldozer" and the name of the team's principal sponsor, Soviet Jeans. Multiple plotlines develop in the story. The most exciting one is in the end when Castel di Sangro Calcio ultimately secures its position in the B series. The last needless game there is a smell of corruption when Castel di Sangro Calcio is defeated by 3 to 1 by Bari that thereby gains promotion. This stinking smell of corruption delivers an unhappy ending for Joe Mc Ginniss but the story is wonderful.

It's been quite some time since I was moved to write a review. This book, a suggestion by a stranger upon hearing that I wanted to learn more about soccer, and Italian soccer in particular suggested this book. I'm not going to go into the story or background because many reviewers do that well and I want some things to remain a surprise. This is s story about that is about soccer yes and Italy. It is even more about the heart and soul of athletes. It is about human nature, ups and downs, savage disappointments, triumphs unimaginable, twists and turns unforeseen, laughs, and finding a place in the world. It is also about balances and soft voices...I was so sad to read that Joe McGinnis had passed away in 2014. I so wanted to write him a thank you note for teaching me about joy and perspective and soccer. And affirming my love for the complexities of Italy. And this book above all. I refuse to lend to any one because I ways want it near to look at. Selfish? Maybe. In the end, I can't stop thinking of it.It's all like a movie, Joe.

Great look at Italians and how they think and how they operate. Funny, thoughtful and a bit heartbreaking. I didn’t want it to end but at the same time I wanted to see how it would end.

I loved this book when I read it many years ago. In fact, I read it twice and gifted copies to many people over the years. My husband would like to read it but the print is so small for his aging eyes. I’m writing this review as a plea for this wonderful book to be digitized so it can be read on Kindle.

This was fun, if you're a fan of soccer/football or you love Italy. Many good stories and characters. Best to learn the author's Italian as he learns it. Once he mentions a word he will use it again and expect you to remember. That's ok. But the author, to me, seemed rude and intrusive in the world and situation he was experiencing. He came across, at times, as the typical ugly American. But he was a good writer and he truly immerses himself in his subjects. (I've read a couple of his other books). But is you don't care for soccer this one might be either a puzzle to you, or just plain irritating.

Impossível não gostar do livro! Leitura fácil, que prende o leitor e mostra o cotidiano de um milagre vivido pelo Castel Di Sangro. As vezes é curioso e até engraçado de ler um americano escrevendo sobre futebol porque, em alguns momentos, ele se vê obrigado a explicar regras básicas do futebol. Além disso, ele se espanta com estádios vazios em jogos de Série B, o que é comum na Itália, no Brasil(de onde escrevo) e qualquer país que respira futebol.Um dos melhores livros que já li!

Hard to believe the story of this club, its players, ‘management’ and season. An excellent read.

Everything

This book is one of the best I've ever read, and it almost transcends sports entirely.This book is a wonderful example of using sport to tell a very human story, an extraordinary skill. Get it for your football-mad teenage son/nephew/friend/etc who will only read about sport at once.The lazy town of Castel Di Sangro, population of 5,000, hosting a Serie B team was crazy enough, the fact that the story of their 96/97 season was told by an American, even crazier. Joe McGinnis, a writer who fell in love with the Sport during the '94 World Cup, follows up his obsession with Roberto Baggio and travels to Italy, discovers the story, and decides he must report on the fairy-tale. McGinniss doesn't just report on the wonderful sporting story of the minnows one promotion away from the world's best league, but instead becomes part of the family of the club, living opposite the manager, befriending the players, dining at the team restaurant, even having relationships (albeit strained) with the shady ownership.The thing that makes this book great is the human qualities and stories of the players, a remarkable collection of Italian men who despite their profession lead very different lives. If you love football, you'll love it, but the book touches on scandal, racism, communism, corruption, drugs, death, imprisonment, and that's just off the top of my head. You might improve your Italian as well.The protagonists open up to the author so much so that every goal conceded is a dagger to your heart, every point gained in the struggle to avoid relegation celebrated. Quite frankly, this review cannot do it justice. It's simply too great, and too real a story. Forza Castel Di Sangro!

Heard about this books some years ago - and only now got round to buying and reading it, as sadly the author recently passed away. A real page-turner. It tells the story of a well-known journalist of US politics, Joe McGinniss's new found passion - or more like obsession - for the "beautiful game", football aka soccer in the US. Here hears about a very small town, Castel di Sangro, having achieved the 'miracle' of reaching the second highest tier in Italian football. And so he decides to move there to spend an entire season following the team. He is sort of adopted by the team and gets to go everywhere with them. But the reality soon kicks in, and not just the fact that he can't speak Italian (which however he gradually picks up a working knowledge of); the team is owned by a shadowy godfather-like character who, it eventually emerges, was hoping to gain financially quite a lot from the presence of the "American author" - perhaps his story of the miracle would be turned into a movie, and perhaps the author himself should contribute to the cost of buying players! The book thus shows the underbelly of the apparent glamour of professional football, an underlying corruption. However, there is another side to the whole story that a fan will recognise: McGinniss was unable to realise his own feeling of self-importance and huge ego and even arrogance; why wasn't the team playing the way he thought they should, and he felt he knew more than the coach of the team. It is the latter aspects which make the book stand out from the normal ego-massaging biography of any team of individual footballer. McGinniss became part of the story itself. Sometimes it can be hard to stomach, but it's certainly well worth it in the end.