num_pages: 400
description: 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 Italytwo of the most passionate soccer playing countriesaffect 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 rankGianluca Vialliin 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.
language: English
title: The Italian Job: A Journey to the Heart of Two Great Footballing Cultures
publisher: Bantam Press