The Italian Job: A Journey to the Heart of Two Great Footballing Cultures

Soccer lies at the heart of popular culture around the world. It is played, watched, written about, and talked to death by millions virtually every day of the year. But how do the characteristics of England and Italy—two of the most passionate soccer playing countries—affect the game in these two nations? Do the national stereotypes of Italians as fervent, stylish lotharios and the English as cold-hearted eccentrics still hold true when they kick a ball around? For the first time, a player of the first rank—Gianluca Vialli—in conjunction with sportswriter and broadcaster Gabriele Marcotti, tackles this debate head on, and they have invited some of the biggest names to join them. Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, Sven Goran Eriksson, Fabio Capello, and Marcello Lippi, among others, add their not inconsiderable weight to the highest-profile symposium on soccer ever convened. Every aspect of the game is explored, be it tactical and technical or cultural and sociological. Stuffed full of controversial opinions and gripping revelations, this study on the sport takes you on a journey to the very heart of two of the world's great soccer cultures.

Gianluca Vialli is one of the most famous Italian footballers in the post-war era. He won league titles with Sampdoria and Juventus and captained Juventus to Champions' League victory in 1996. At international level he won 59 caps for Italy, scoring 16 goals and leading them to the semi-finals of both the 1988 European Championship and the 1990 World Cup. As a manager, in two and a half seasons at Chelsea he won more trophies than any other manager in the history of the club, including the FA Cup, Cupwinners' Cup and League Cup. He currently divides his time between London and Italy where he is the top analyst for Sky Italia's Serie A and Champions' League coverage. Gabriele Marcotti is the UK correspondent for Corriere dello Sport, and World Football columnist for The Times. He has also written for the Financial Times, Sunday Herald, Daily Mail and La Stampa. He co-presents two weekly radio shows on TalkSport and is a regular analyst on Bravo, Setanta and SkySports News. He is also a columnist for Sports Illustrated.