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Fabio with wife Laura in Rome in the late 1960s |
Italian who carries England’s hopes for World Cup glory
But this book about Capello says little about Fabio ‘The Man’, writes John Foot
ACCORDING to the preface, Mark Ryan “first thought about writing this book in March 2008”. I am writing this review in December 2008. So, by my reckoning, that is eight months between that “first thought” and the book actually existing. Pretty fast work by any standards. And I’m afraid it shows.
This is what the Italians call – in English – an instant book, created to cash in on England’s great year under Fabio Capello. There are two theories in Italy as to why nobody has ever written a biography about the most successful manager in Italian domestic football history.
One is that he is too powerful, the other is that his (private) life is too boring. Both are to some extent played out in Mark Ryan’s account. In fact, there is little or nothing here about Capello “The Man”, and even less which could be described as an “Inside Story”.
Ryan tells Capello’s story largely from interviews with his family and via assorted newspaper articles and some books. Ryan’s book actually starts off pretty well.
In the chapters dedicated to Capello’s poor origins on the borders of Yugoslavia and the Cold War, through to the detailed account of his long and distinguished playing and management career, there is a fair amount of interesting incidental detail.
But the last 120 pages or so – dedicated largely to the England period – are dull as ditchwater. There is far too much about the games themselves.
Surely life is too short for thousands of words about a game between England and Andorra: “Lampard delivered a quality free kick, Lescott cushioned a beautiful pass with his instep, and Joe Cole popped up unmarked in the area to volley the opening goal with power and relish.” Uhmm. It’s the sort of prose you might find turning up in London Lite of a Thursday.
This book has no index, and no bibliography. The first thing I would have looked up, if there had been an index, would have been “Moggi, Luciano”. To his credit, Ryan does try and deal with the “Moggi issue” – and even questions Capello directly about it – but then pulls his punches, perhaps worried about libel. Let’s remind ourselves about a few things, for a second. Luciano Moggi was sporting director of Juventus when Fabio Capello was manager. The two are friends. Thanks largely to a series of wire taps on Moggi’s many phones (at one point he had at least seven mobiles), Juventus were relegated to Serie B and stripped of the two championships they had won under Capello, who left for Real Madrid in 2006, although there is no indication that Capello was involved.
The latest and most important trials linked to this case are due to begin in Naples sometime soon (nobody knows when). It will be very interesting to see what emerges.
And – as with all things in Italian football – nothing is simple or obvious here. Franco Baldini, Capello’s right-hand man with England, is hated by Moggi for his revelations about some of the goings-on behind the scenes in recent years. There is a very good book waiting to be written about Fabio Capello. In fact, Gabriele Marcotti has already written one (Capello: Portrait of a Winner. Bantam Press, 2008).
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