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Rating: If there's anyone among you who thinks that reading a book about football is one of the most useless things in this world, now is the time to reconsider. Gianni Brera elevated sports journalism to the level of literature thanks to his profound passion fueled by a unique and engaging style that set a standard. In this magnificent account of Italian football, Brera traces all the evolutionary stages of the sport most loved by Italians, from the early days of kicking a ball tied with strings on muddy fields to the National team's qualification for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina.
The approach is deliberately critical, as the title suggests. Brera doesn’t just narrate; he delves into the tactics of the game while also incorporating ethno-social considerations that reveal his open appreciation for the Italian school's defensive play.
From the triumphs of the 1930s to the international results crisis of the 1950s, to the definitive establishment of the catenaccio system introduced by Nereo Rocco and Gipo Viani at the Rome Olympics in 1960, from the explanations of playing modules to the descriptions of the physical, technical, and human characteristics of many champions who graced the pitches: nothing is missing in this book to fully understand the true origins of a sport that in the third millennium seems to have forgotten its plebeian roots.
Brera's pen flows smoothly, among neologisms that have definitively entered everyday sports language and nicknames humorously given to the protagonists of Italian football that remain ingrained in the collective imagination.
The anecdotes and backstage stories in the book are immensely enjoyable: from Meazza's escapades in brothels to Viani's antics to avoid the draft, from Herrera's witchcraft to Milan's lineup written by a drunk Rocco on a napkin on the eve of a derby.
By many, Brera has been hastily considered as somewhat racist. The book serves to know, besides a great journalist, a great writer who contributed significantly, through his articles, to the immense popularity of football in Italy. When football was still just a sport.
The book contains numerous statistics useful for enthusiasts. A beautiful afterword by Giuseppe Signori, Brera's pupil, integrates the history of Italian football up to the 1998 World Cup.
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