The History of the World in 12 Soccer Matches <\/p>\n
Author: Stefano Bizzotto Translated by Will Scott <\/p>\n
ISBN-13: 9781685892296<\/p>\n
Publisher: Melville House <\/p>\n
Guideline Price: \u20ac20; 240pp <\/p>\n
Former AC Milan<\/a> coach Arrigo Sacchi<\/a> described the biggest sport on the planet as \u201cthe most important of the least important things\u201d, which nicely encapsulates the spirit of the games collected by Stefano Bizzotto. <\/p>\n Seeking to match the ambition of the book\u2019s title, Bizzotto places his players on the heavy pitch of history; they became spectators, too, of the social upheavals surrounding them, or viewing their country\u2019s past replayed in a theatre of war that\u2019s 22 blokes kicking a ball around a field. <\/p>\n If you love this game invented in the 19th century, that most revolutionary age of the springtime of the peoples, then 12 Matches proves an illuminating read.<\/p>\n Journalist Bizzotto replays the matches in the light conversational manner found on any podcast; it\u2019s easy to tell he lives for Calcio. <\/p>\n Some of the games featured will be familiar: the football match that broke out during a Christmas ceasefire in the first World War<\/a> (initiated by the lower ranks; the generals had no idea); or when the weight of the second World War created a beautiful distortion in the Dutch team when the opportunity for \u201crevenge\u201d arose against West Germany in 1974\u2019s World Cup final. <\/p>\n Bizzotto adds emotional heft to these tales previously told with judicious selections of archival writings and interviews. In fact he made this reader choke over a story known by heart, the Superga tragedy in 1949 which wiped out Il Grande Torino (nota bene, an estimated 600,000 Italians turned out for the funerals).<\/p>\n