Joe McGinness, famous for 1968's "The Selling of the President," returned to the publishing world last year not with an expose of intrigue, murder and politics, but with a look into the world of soccer.
Like any youthful infatuation, his journey through an entire Italian Serie B season with the Castel di Sangro soccer club leaves him wiser, but disillusioned.
In "The Miracle of Castel di Sangro" (Little Brown & Company, $14.95), the middle-aged father and free-lance writer documents his sudden and inexplicable passion for Italian soccer while following the Cinderella story of a small-town club team that climbed to the second-highest professional league in the Mediterranean nation.
Never before had McGinness thought twice about soccer, or "il calcio" as it is called in Italy. The 1994 World Cup tournament in the United States, however, spun the web of fanaticism around him, making him an ill-informed, but devoted aficionado.
The author readily admits that the nonfiction book is not, however, a journalistic work. It's a chronicle of one man's mid-life epiphany that the love and obsession of his life is soccer.
"My doctor ... half-jokingly attributed my condition to a ministroke, one which -- while leaving all motor functions intact -- had apparently disabled that portion of the brain that normally protects Americans against any appreciation of soccer," McGinness writes.
In 1988, the club team in the small, mountain town of 5,000 in the north of Italy played in the highest category of amateur teams. By 1996, with little budget, marginal talent and some determination, the squad advanced through two semi-professional leagues. A tiebreaking season-finale went through two overtime periods before the outmatched Castel di Sangro goalkeeper made an extraordinary save, sending the team to the pros.
The fairy-tale story of the Lilliputians of Castel di Sangro advancing to play the likes of Venice, Turin, Palermo and Padua attracted McGinness. With no knowledge of the Italian language or culture, the author makes himself the 12th man on the pitch. The "miracle save" brought the goofy, exuberant American writer to the mountain town and to the team.
Although the book contains the standard mistranslation and culture shock humor, the heart of the story is one man's education in the thrill and heartbreak of fandom.
Looking for the pure love of "il calcio" in a ragtag band of players, McGinness also finds that even in small-town Italy, big business corruption and tragedy are omnipresent.
Pietro Rezza, the shadowy, millionaire owner of the team, often reroutes income for the team to his other "business interests," many of which are implied to be related to organized crime. Because of this, Rezza delays the addition of 6,000 seats to the town's stadium as required by Serie B for more than half of the nine-month season.
After a final act of corrupt treachery to the team, as McGinness sees it, the writer, disheartened, leaves the Italian town as the club barely manages to remain in the league for a second season.
A story of youthful infatuation of an exotic culture and sport from a middle-aged American's perspective, the "Miracle of Castel di Sangro" will speak to anyone whose innocent fascination has come crashing down on them.
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