Description

‘A gripping, unsettling and authoritative portrait of football’s original dark genius – brilliantly researched and superbly told.’ GUILLEM BALAGUE

A wonderfully compelling biography… This is a story that, once read, you can’t forget.’ DUNCAN HAMILTON, THREE-TIME WILLIAM HILL AWARD WINNER

‘One Hel of a story… uncovers the explosive truth behind a man who went further than anyone else in his fierce desire to win.’ THE SUN

‘Assiduously researched… tells Herrera’s outrageous story with verve’ FINANCIAL TIMES

THE STORY OF FOOTBALL’S MOST NOTORIOUS COACH

Nicknamed ‘Il Mago’ (The Wizard) after bringing European Cup glory to Inter Milan in successive years, Helenio Herrera was hailed as one of the finest minds in football.

This explosive book explores the enigma of the incredibly charismatic ‘HH’: a philanderer, charlatan, trash-talker and serial winner mired in controversy. His stellar career was halted by the death of one of his star players and his subsequent trial for manslaughter.

‘HH’ revolutionised football coaching. Preparing his teams meticulously, he was obsessed with his players’ mental toughness and introduced idiosyncratic psychological techniques. He made his name as a coach, winning La Liga twice with both Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, but it was his move to Inter in 1960 that propelled him to stardom. His team won three scudetti in the mid-1960s and were only denied a third European Cup by Jock Stein’s Celtic in 1967.

HH reveals how Herrera was the original master of the game’s dark arts. In Spain he introduced a regime of performance-enhancing drugs, and he continued this practice in Italy, which eventually led to his downfall.

Featuring interviews with those who knew Herrera well – including Fabio Capello, Sandro Mazzola, Ian St John and Denis Law – HH is a fascinating story of deceit and intrigue, bloodshed, sex and glorious football.

Publisher Review

A wonderfully compelling biography of someone so unbelievably eccentric and darkly maverick that no fiction writer would dare invent him. This is a story that, once read, you can’t forget. — Duncan Hamilton, three-time William Hill award winner A brilliantly captivating book – breathlessly paced and teeming with detail – about the life and times of a man who makes Jose Mourinho look like Mother Teresa. — Tom Williams, author of DO YOU SPEAK FOOTBALL? HH – what a character. A deeply disturbed, malevolent, brilliant man… A superb book. I absolutely loved it. — Paul Howard, five-time Irish Book Award winner A transfixing, twisting documentary of a book as befits the Herrera story. Meticulously researched and masterfully written, like all great football books it goes way beyond the game — Daniel Gray, author of the acclaimed SATURDAY, 3PM Richard Fitzpatrick has finally written the book we’ve all been waiting to read – about the man Gabriel Garcia Marquez called “His Holiness”. A brilliant story; brilliantly told. — Sid Lowe, GUARDIAN Spanish football correspondent Helenio Herrera insisted his catenaccio system – which gave us the sweeper – should be attractive, with full-backs overlapping and joining attacks. Yet it was perceived as cautious and defensive. It was also hugely successful and Richard Fitzpatrick, a fine story teller and diligent journalist, unpicks this fascinating man who changed football — Andy Mitten, editor-at-large for FOURFOURTWO Helenio Herrera – HH, so complex they named him twice. A man from everywhere and nowhere, who took football somewhere it had never been before, setting the framework – good and bad – for much of what has come since. With the manic determination of HH himself, Richard Fitzpatrick has hurled himself into a quest to educate and entertain us with the life and times of this extraordinary man. — Tim Vickery, BBC Sport South American football correspondent A fascinating book about a fascinating man. Richard Fitzpatrick has eloquently captured one of football’s most enigmatic figures. — Richard Whitehead, acclaimed author of VICTORY IN AUSTRALIA