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

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

4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 · rating details · 1,017 ratings · 91 reviews

Master storyteller Joe McGinniss travels to Italy to cover the unlikely success of a ragtag minor league soccer team--and delivers a brilliant and utterly unforgettable story of life in an off-the-beaten-track Italian village.

When Joe McGinniss sets out for the remote Italian village of Castel di Sangro one summer, he merely intends to spend a season with the village's soc...more

Paperback, 416 pages

Published June 6th 2000 by Broadway (first published 1999)

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Oct 19, 2010 Brad rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: football-lit, to-read-again

Before there were all those book trading sites like bookmooch, bookcrossing and even goodreads, I took my copy of The Miracle of Castel di Sangro: A Tale of Passion and Folly in the Heart of Italy, signed my name in the inside cover and sent it to a friend. It made the rounds and came back to me after five people had read it. I sent it out again; it has since disappeared. But that's okay because I know that at least six people, other than myself (and including my Mom who passed a couple of years...more

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Apr 30, 2013 Matt rated it 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars.

This book should've been called Joe McGinniss Goes to Italy So That Joe McGinniss Can Talk to Italians and Report on how They React to Joe McGinniss by Joe McGinniss.

A really great sports story is hidden somewhere in these 404 pages, but I'd forgive you if you missed it. McGinniss spends most of the book arguing with the coach about tactics (even though he knows nothing about soccer), claiming that he's as close to the team as if they were family (even though a player's son says his f...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Rob rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sport, non-fiction

The source material is fantastic, McGinniss is a pretty good stylist with a nice sense for humour, and he evidently enjoyed extraordinary access to the main personalities in the writing of the book. These add up to a great story, albeit one that seems to me to be targeted at an american audience, for whom the football and the passions involved are presented as an exoticism in themselves.

That's what makes this a pleasing Brysonesque journey with a team's season (which is extraordinary, incorporat...more

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Nov 03, 2012 Tom N rated it 5 of 5 stars

This story is absolutely fantastic. It is truly the most unlikely footballing tale I have ever come across and entirely deserving of the title 'miracle'.
There seems to be divided opinion on McGinniss' presentation of the story. Personally I found some of his narrative entertaining and other parts just plain annoying. At times it was very obvious that he had only been a football fan for a few years as opposed to a lifetime. However the material in the book is so engrossing, it is easy to forgive...more

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May 19, 2012 Ben rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

What should have been a brilliant book about the ups and downs of a small team succeeding beyond their means is instead the story of the author experiencing the ups and downs of a small team succeeding beyond their means. There is no reason why this concept would not work, as long as the reader wants, or at least accepts, the author’s perspective. However, McGinniss is, or inexplicably writes himself as a cartoonish stereotype of the dumb, arrogant American imposing himself on another culture.

A...more What should have been a brilliant book about the ups and downs of a small team succeeding beyond their means is instead the story of the author experiencing the ups and downs of a small team succeeding beyond their means. There is no reason why this concept would not work, as long as the reader wants, or at least accepts, the author’s perspective. However, McGinniss is, or inexplicably writes himself as a cartoonish stereotype of the dumb, arrogant American imposing himself on another culture.

A new soccer fan without any real understanding of the game, McGinniss is not ashamed to publicly denounce the team’s tactics, constantly tell the coach how he is wrong, and undermine the coach to the players. The author confronts the owner about not spending enough money, bad mouths the president to the owner in front of the president, confronts the president about the stadium and other matters, publicly denounces the owner and the president, and again works to undermine them to the players. At least McGinniss learned some Italian by the end, though he never seems to grasp either Italian culture or style of play.

Every event in this book is just a set up to the author’s reaction. The team scores a goal – cut to McGinniss cheering wildly. The team concedes a goal – cut to McGinniss being depressed. The coach announces his lineup – cut to McGinniss being angry about the tactics/player selection. The author really should have included his name in the title.

Despite the author, there is a great story to be told here. In addition to the miracle of a small team rising to the 2nd tier of Italian soccer, you also have personal tragedy with player deaths, transfer drama, all sorts of shady dealings from drug smuggling to match fixing, and fascinating players and citizens of Castel di Sangro. It really is a shame that McGinniss didn’t write the OJ Simpson book he decided against to write this story; no one would have cared about yet another book about OJ. And the subjects of this book deserved better.
(less)

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Jun 29, 2011 Danica rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was enchanted by the first chapter, even though it plumbed the usual body of jokes about soccer (an American who likes the sport? never! Italian devotees who deem a match loss to be on par with having their homes wrecked by natural catastrophes? mais oui!). And from then on out, I found this book unusually enjoyable. It's a light, breezy read that worked on a couple of levels for me. McGuinness is effortlessly funny; he delivers these great one-liners in deadpan voiceover. There are a lot of p...more I was enchanted by the first chapter, even though it plumbed the usual body of jokes about soccer (an American who likes the sport? never! Italian devotees who deem a match loss to be on par with having their homes wrecked by natural catastrophes? mais oui!). And from then on out, I found this book unusually enjoyable. It's a light, breezy read that worked on a couple of levels for me. McGuinness is effortlessly funny; he delivers these great one-liners in deadpan voiceover. There are a lot of players, many of them vividly evoked, though it's difficult right now to call more than a few to mind ... I liked the bright, character-sketched details you get about Super-Lotti, the player who dilutes his wine with sprite, the other player who always plays terribly away from home because he misses his mother (even though some away games are only a few hours away, and the team goes back home immediately afterward), and the kid that yells KAAAREEEEEM ABDUL JABAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRR and mimes slam-dunking whenever McGinniss walks into his line of sight. The weekly match write-ups were suspenseful reads. I identified, maybe to an unhealthy extent, with McGinniss's extreme fannishness. Finally, I found the season's ups and downs to be pretty poignant! The end result warmed my insides and made me smile.

The writing gets thin towards the middle of the book, maybe in unconscious mimicry of the team's own mid-season slog, although one could also argue that it's pretty thin throughout. By that, I mean that McGinniss's style is that of a snarky reporter's. He's brief. He's succinct. He gives it to you plain. Reading his writing, I felt like there were limits to the way he was able to convey triumph, grief, emotional tumult. He does it well enough to move me, but I suppose I've been reading too many novels, and go into books wanting that gut-deep instantaneity that maybe only a character POV can proivde.

There are a couple of twists that were extremely WTF (shady mafiosos, sudden deaths). The ending felt abrupt and out of line with the "miracle", but it was also in keeping with the extraneous shit happening by the sidelines throughout the entirety of the season.

This book makes me want to read Saviano's Gomorrah. I think I'll go check it out now. (less)

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Jun 10, 2010 M. Milner rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: great-sports-books

Joe McGinness’ year abroad following the exploits of a minor league soccer team is funny, sad, scary and never dull, even to somebody who has never followed soccer, let alone any played in Italy.

And while he gets deep into the game, plunging in with reckless abandon, it’s by no means just a book about soccer. It’s about the people who play the game, the personalities that drive it and make it more then just something played on a pitch.

There’s the Che Guevara worshipping midfielder, the stoic tea...more Joe McGinness’ year abroad following the exploits of a minor league soccer team is funny, sad, scary and never dull, even to somebody who has never followed soccer, let alone any played in Italy.

And while he gets deep into the game, plunging in with reckless abandon, it’s by no means just a book about soccer. It’s about the people who play the game, the personalities that drive it and make it more then just something played on a pitch.

There’s the Che Guevara worshipping midfielder, the stoic team captain with barely a word to say and the long-suffering backup goaltender. There’s Jaconi, the bullheaded coach whose only English words are “I bulldozer”, a succinct and accurate description of his personality and coaching methodology. It’s these characters that drive the work along.

But of course, soccer (or as McGinness calls it, il calcio) is always present. The book follows the author as he moves to a remote Italian town to witness what some were calling the miracle of Castel did Sangro: this small, remote desert town’s soccer team has slowly worked its way up the myriad ranks of Italian soccer, right up to Serie B, the second-highest division of the sport. Think the Durham Bulls playing their way into the National League.

Once there, McGinness establishes himself as a curiosity in the town – a football-mad American, the rarest of rare animals. He follows the team daily, travels with them to away matches and, as he put it himself, descends into madness only two matches into the season.

He does more then root for the team; he lives and dies with them. Throughout the book there is a palpable sense of agony, of just how in love he fell with the team. Surely it was more then he wished. And as the narrative unwinds, with several unforeseen and almost unbelievable twists, his emotions only roar more to the forefront.

And through it all, he uses the same detailed reporting he has in his true-crime works to cut through the BS and fearlessly report on everything that happens. It would have been all too easy to tow the line and agree with everybody and produce a sanitized work on the team, but here he reveals all – good and bad.

This isn’t to say the book is grim, however. In parts it’s moving and in others hilarious. For example, after a poorly officiated game, one fan tells McGinness about another poorly officiated game from years past and it’s aftermath: fans tracked down the poor ref and lynched him, while local police reasoned it by saying how terrible the ref was.

That’s just one of the many apocryphal tales in his book, which serves not only to chronicle the wins and losses on the pitch, but off it too. It’s thoroughly enjoyable and well worth the read.(less)

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May 02, 2010 Steve Kettmann rated it 4 of 5 stars

My review published in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1999:

Having a Ball in Italy
Author spends a year chronicling the fanatical world of a small-town soccer team
REVIEWED BY Steve Kettmann

Sunday, August 22, 1999

THE MIRACLE OF CASTEL DI SANGRO
By Joe McGinniss Little, Brown; 404 pages; $25
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One starts out Joe McGinniss' account of his year with a small-town Italian soccer club feeling sorry for the author for embarrassin...more

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Jul 01, 2010 Oleg Kagan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: small-town

I thought that The Miracle of Castel di Sangro would be a light-hearted story of a small-town (pop: 5,000) soccer team making it into the big time. In a way, this is accurate, on the other hand, what with the mafia, crooked owners, and seedier parts of the Italian culture, Joe McGinniss shaped a story that after about the halfway mark left me wondering. The first indication that this would not be such a light-hearted story was when I flipped to the photos and read in the captions that some of th...more

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Aug 16, 2011 Ronald Wise rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A non-fiction book written by McGinnis, resulting from the obsession for soccer he developed after the World Cup was held in the United States in 1994. A miracle had occurred in Italy: A soccer team had risen from the obscurities of amateur play, to play in the upper professional tiers — a team from Castel di Sangro, the town of 5,000 in the impoverished province of Abruzzo. McGinnis lived in Castel di Sangro while the team struggled to keep its place in Serie B in 1996. Despite cringing frequen...more

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Jan 28, 2012 Brooke rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was an interesting read for me. It challenged me throughout because of the game it revolved around--soccer--which I know very little about. There was also a lot of dialogue written in Italian, sometimes translated, sometimes not. So sometimes I just had to do my best to figure it out. Overall, it was a very inspiring book about the motivation of the players and the love they have for the game. Much love was also given to the village the team was from, especially the special nature of the pe...more

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Jun 11, 2010 Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this book in the week or two before the 2010 World Cup. Recommended by a friend who knows English soccer, I thought it would be a good prep for the summer. The story is written by an author embedded with a modestly financed Italian pro team for one season. I think the author wrote about the OJ trial previously, so I wasn't sure this would be all that captivating. It turns out to be a crazy story about a small town Italian soccer team who miraculously ends up in Serie B and then battles in...more

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Jul 23, 2008 Dave Finnigan rated it 5 of 5 stars

The story of a lowly Italian football team's one season in Serie B,this is one of the finest books I have ever read. Not being a fan of the genre I approached it with trepidation,but inside the first 50 pages I was gripped.Although it is a true story it reads like a novel, with a cast staight out of Central Casting and the highs and lows which are rarely found in any top-flight sport in this day and age. As an American and(at the time)a newcomer to the sport, McGinnis has the enthusiasm to sit t...more

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Aug 07, 2007 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: soccer fans

In the early stages of fanaticism there’s a giddy sense of becoming part of something larger-than-life. In time, a fan is rewarded for picking up on subtleties, aspiring to be among the cognoscenti. Then in the more mature and philosophical stages the proselytizing begins and the sport may even become “a metaphor for life.” With an objective step back, though, Gods and heroes become mortal. Joe McGinniss is a football (a.k.a. soccer) fan who has been through these stages. He does a great job des...more

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Jan 22, 2011 Dena rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Joe McGinnis is a journalist who spent 2 years covering the OJ Simpson trial. After the verdict, when faced with spending more of his life on that unpleasant subject, turned down a book deal and decided to follow his new-found passion for soccer. He latched onto a story unfolding in a small town in Italy. This is not a sports book, though fans will love it, but a peek into Italian culture. Prepare to fall madly in love with these characters.

http://readdenaread.blogspot.com/2008...

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Aug 03, 2010 thomas rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is one of my top five books of all time. As an Italian American who has never been to Italy it was an eye opener. As a sports fan who knew nothing about soccer it gave me an understanding and an ability to enjoy the sport. And on top of all of that it is in its heart a Rocky-ish root for the underdog story.

It works as a travelog. It works as sports novel (except it is true).

Give it a try. I dare you to tell me you didn't enjoy it.

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Jan 01, 2012 Corri rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: listened-to

(Read by Dick Hill - my fave!)

I loved this true story. As good as it was, I think the enjoyment was increased because of the narrator. He made the book and anecdotes quite enjoyable. Joe had an amazing experince living and breathing Castel di Sangro soccer. It was unfortunate that at the end, he couldn't accept that he's from a different culture and disguised that as morals/values. But, he's definitely entitled to his own opinion.

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Apr 18, 2011 Tara rated it 4 of 5 stars

A true story, very well told, of a tiny soccer team from a nowhere town that finds itself playing for the first time in the Serie B, the second highest calcio (soccer) league in Italy. The story is told through Joe McGinniss's voice, an American journalist/soccer fan who basically lives and breathes with the team through its debut season. There's enough action and drama off the field to entertain those of us who aren't fascinated by the discussions of tactics and refereeing calls.

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Jul 24, 2011 Wayne rated it 3 of 5 stars

What this book is best at is capturing the feeling of enthusiasm of what it's like to be a (sports) fan. Why this works so well is that McGinnis reminds us at times that he's only been a soccer fan for a short period of time. He seems to marvel at how absurd his new enthusiasm is. Authority and knowledge of a subject/activity/hobby/interest is not directly tied to how much fun you can have with it.

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Jun 22, 2008 Justin rated it 3 of 5 stars

My Review: Football is amazing. It ties together worlds of humanity with its passion and teleplay on life itself.

Italian football shows us the worst side of our blind enthusiasm and human nature.

The book is well written and contains many interesting stories and characters, but on the whole it glorifies the worst aspects of italian mob mentality and nationalized football's many problems. McGuiness seems to think that the passion that drives a group of disgruntled fans to kidnap and murder a refe...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Italians do not think that Americans can understand their passion for soccer, so they are nonplussed when Joe McGinniss decides to spend a year following a Serie B (second tier) team in order to write a book about their experiences. Castel di Sangro is a tiny Abruzzan town that, by what seems to be a miracle, has managed to move up through the lower levels of semi-pro and pro soccer (think of baseball, minor league and whatever its feeders are). Now they are only one tier below the glamor and mo...more

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Jan 04, 2011 Nicola rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

This could have been a wonderful book, the story it tells of Castel di Sangro's season in Serie B is amazing but it's ruined by the presence of the author.
I could cope with the explanations of various football terms (penalty kicks, corners etc) but the author's arrogant and self obsessed attitude really bugged me. He became more and more annoying as the story progressed. Why did he think the experienced coach should have listened to his suggestions regarding team selection and tactics? He'd bee...more

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Mar 26, 2009 Donald rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, read-in-2000s, soccer

McGinnis tells a rollicking story of a town and team you won't find on ESPN Soccernet, SI, Fox Soccer, or anywhere else. He captures the rhythm of a football season while getting us vested in the players, fans, and somehow even the owners(!) - one of the few soccer books that I've gone back to multiple times and have pressed into multiple friend's hands.

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Jul 05, 2009 Stanley rated it 3 of 5 stars

Was looking for a sports book-something I don't read too often. It was all about calcio--soccer. But it was REALLY all about the way things work in Italy. Written by an American who, like most Americans, thinks he's got the goods on the "right" way to do things.
I enjoyed it. Though there is a sad twist at the end. (that's the American in me speaking)

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Oct 17, 2012 Sean Branson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, soccer

I've read many soccer books, but this ranks among my favorites. It was an interesting look into the world of the Italian Serie B in the mid-90's after the author spent the season embedded with the tiny Castel di Sangro squad. An in-depth look into Italian soccer wouldn't be complete without shadowy Mafia types and a match-fixing scandal, so this story certainly didn't disappoint.

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Jun 09, 2009 Michael Del Greco rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the best books on football (soccer) I have ever read, this amazing work is set in my native region of Abruzzo and provides a beautifully intimate glimpse into everyday Italian football culture. A young Italian footballer, World Champion Vincenzo Iaquinta, happens to guest-star before his rise to the top of world football.

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Oct 14, 2007 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Soccer fans, Italophiles

An American reporter travels to Italy to track the miraculous wins (and horrible botches) of a small-town Series B soccer team. Though not exactly a literary coup, this personable tale provides two things you need to have any insight on the country and culture -- portraits of real people, both the average middle class guys who have staked their living on a soccer career and the few wealthy men in every town who run things -- and the national obsession with soccer, which is both epic and mundane....more

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Dec 21, 2008 Bob Conklin rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm not a soccer fan, but I loved this book. Joe McGinnis moves to Italy for a year and attaches himself to an unknown team from a small, remote town in the Abruzzo that "miraculously" ascends, briefly, to the "big leagues." The story is both amusing and illuminating of some of the darker sides of Italian life.

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Apr 19, 2011 Brian added it

For an insight into Italian football (soccer) culture as well as Italian culture in the region of Abruzzo then there is no other book on the planet better than this. A multi-award winner at the time.

Note: You don't have to be a football fan, or indeed have any extensive knowledge of football to enjoy this.

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Aug 01, 2010 Tag Garibay rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is about a soccer team in Italy called Castel di Sangro and about their rise to fame, from C2 to Serie B. It is funny at times and is sad at others, but it is truly great to any soccer fan. Joe McGinniss is a master at telling the story of Castel di Sangro, and I would reccomend this book to all soccer fans.

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About Joe McGinniss

Joe McGinniss (born 1942) is an American author of nonfiction and novels. He first came to prominence with the best-selling The Selling of the President 1968 which described the marketing of then-presidential candidate Richard Nixon, and has authored 11 works since that time. His latest book is The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin.

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