Showing results for "mario risoli"

As a young striker with Third Division club Swansea Town in the ’60s, Giorgio Chinaglia stole milk bottles from the doorsteps of local terraced houses because he couldn’t afford breakfast. Nine years later, as Lazio’s star centre-forward, Chinaglia owned apartments in Rome, a villa, a tennis club and a boat. With an annual salary of £85,000, this son of a Cardiff restaurateur was one of the world’s highest-paid footballers.Arrivederci Swansea is the remarkable rags to rich...

When Pelé Broke Our Hearts is the definitive and bestselling story of Wales's remarkable 1958 World Cup campaign. Now republished in an updated and expanded third edition, Mario Risoli’s highly acclaimed book contains additional material from the players and their families and many more photographs and illustrations from the qualifying campaign and tournament. An incredible tale that features the Munich Air Disaster, a bizarre qualification as representatives of FIFA’s Middle East/Asia gro...

‘Whenever I look at him, it is as though the Messiah has returned.’ That's how Jimmy Murphy, manager of Wales’ 1958 World Cup side, described John Charles. In Italy, where he played for Juventus and Roma, Charles was known as Il Gigante Buono – the Gentle Giant – because of his placid temperament.One of the greatest footballers Britain has ever produced, Charles left his native Swansea at 16 to join Leeds United, where his phenomenal strike rate helped the club reach the F...

Captain of Celtic and midfield enforcer for Northern Ireland, Neil Lennon is one of the most controversial figures in British football. His story is an extraordinary tale of religious bigotry, life-threatening career injury, tumultuous football success at club level, and of the remarkable events that led him to turn his back on his country.The first Northern Irish Roman Catholic to play for Celtic and to be chosen to captain his country, Lennon was sensationally forced to quit the ...

Discover the life of a footballing legend . . .'An absolute hero of mine, and countless others. One of the greatest goalkeepers of all time' Gary Lineker'One of the best England has ever had' Sir Bobby Charlton__________For 10 years Gordon Banks was not only England's Number One, but the best keeper in the world - perhaps the best there's ever been.He helped lead England to ...

Football is all about opinions, and few people hold more opinions about more topics than talkSPORT's host of the Drive show, Adrian Durham. Whether it is the quality of Arsenal's 'Invincibles' or the supposed brilliance of manager Jose Mourinho, you can bet that Durham will have a view on the matter. Just because everyone else agrees that Pele is the greatest footballer who ever lived, doesn't mean that Durham will agree with that view - and he will supply a whole range of fascinating reas...

The Sunday Times no.1 bestselling memoir from Harry Redknapp‘From kicking a ball as a kid under the street lamps of Poplar and standing on Highbury's North Bank with my dad, to my first game at West Ham, I was born head over heels in love with football. It saved me, and 50 years on that hasn't changed one bit - I'd be lost without it…’Harry is the manager who has seen it all - from a dismal 70s Portakabin at Oxford City and traini...

Harry Redknapp is one of the biggest and best-loved characters in English football. From West Ham to Bournemouth, Portsmouth to Tottenham, legions of fans regard him as one of the game's true legends.• Harry's long career has been packed with twists and turns and plenty of controversy. Signing for West Ham as a 17 year-old, Harry Redknapp made 149 appearances before moving to Bournemouth where he stayed until 1982, leaving to take up his first coaching position with the club. After a major...

Kenny Dalglish's relationship with Liverpool Football Club is one of the great love stories of sport. From the moment he first set foot in the Anfield dressing room nervously asking for autographs while having a trial at the club, Dalglish felt a passion for Liverpool stir within him. After joining from Celtic in 1977, the supremely gifted striker was embraced by Liverpool fans, for the goals and the glory, and most especially for the three European Cups. The Kop's adoration of King Kenny ...

Ryan Giggs first played for Manchester United in the season before the Premiership began; back when Bryan Robson was still captain. He took possession of United's left wing and never loosened his grip. Over a fourteen year career so far, he's seen them all come and go: Cantona, Schmeichel, Beckham and the rest.Sir Alex Ferguson said of Giggs 'I knew we had an outstanding talent when we gave him his debut.' That was back in 1991, but it remains as true in 2005 as it ever was. Giggs ...

The autobiography of football icon Jimmy GreavesJames Peter 'Jimmy' Greaves was one of the greatest footballers to have graced the English game, a goalscorer of legendary prowess. His gripping and characteristically humorous autobiography journeys from Jimmy's childhood in the East End, via his early career at Chelsea and his short and troubled stay at A.C. Milan, to his emergence as one of the great stars of sixties football while at Spurs and an outstanding England forward.

'We were the first generation to have to deal with the modern stardom of football. Some handled it better than others' George BestWritten in the months before he died, Hard Tackles and Dirty Baths is George's farewell letter to the great footballing era in which he burned so brightly - a personal history of the golden years before TV and agents changed everything. From the breaking of the maximum wage to the cusp of the first million-pound player, it follows the triumphs a...