The Team
A Soccer Novel
by
Book Details
About the Book
No available information as of the moment. Will provide once available.
About the Author
Why this book? Thanks to my soccer past, I chose to be a coach and give individual and group soccer lessons so, of course, I’m promoting my activity. But there are other reasons. For example, all books teach HOW to play soccer and they do it very well for all ages of players. Thousands of pages in which everything is sectioned in the most minute detail and, because no one knows everything, I also learn something new everyday. But what is really missing is what soccer IS for the rest of the world and why, even though 17 million Americans play soccer (12 million kids), it is not popular at the professional level like basketball, football and baseball. I tried to answer this question in an indirect way, by publishing this soccer novel, in which the protagonist, Marco, struggles everyday with this problem. Another reason that pushed me, is the fact that I think those who have played at the highest levels should transfer their experience to the new generation of players. I believe it is our obligation, otherwise our experience will be lost. I have more than 50 years of experience, since I am 59 and my father started coaching me at 6 years old. He played in Italy professionally all his life and when he retired, wrote a book about soccer technique. I was a successful player from an early age because I was very well trained and at 17 years old with my team AUSONIA GRASSI, from Milano, won the National Title U17, receiving a gold medal from the President of Italy. On that occasion I scored 5 goals in the semi-final and final. After that, A.C. MILAN chose me and I played for two years on their youth team. Having missed the first team by a hair, I played until 35 years of age on other competitive semi-professional teams, before following in my father’s footsteps by becoming a coach. I dedicated myself to studying soccer technique and in particular how to coach youth teams. I arrived in San Francisco in 1998. You can reach me at gianni@coachgianni.com