My Italian Diary

by ian-rush

In a dramatic transfer coup, Ian Rush returned to his beloved Liverpool in August 1988 from a year in Italian football with Juventus. In 1987-88 he was the leading League scorer for the glamorous Turin club, but his time in Italy was fraught with difficulties. In his frank, outspoken diary, Rushie reveals the problems as well as the pleasures of big-money football stardom in Europe. How he was hailed as a messiah when he was signed for £3.2 million, but made the scapegoat when Juventus struggled to find form. He tells about his clashes over tactics with the Juventus coach; his dressing-room problems with team-mates; his gnawing homesickness; and his hounding by the Italian press. Ian Rush is a goalscoring idolized by the Kop and by his fellow Welshmen, feared by defenders the world over. In his first spell for Liverpool, he scored 139 goals in 244 First Division a five-and-a-half-year period in which —until interrupted by defeat in the 1987 Littlewoods Cup final — when Rush scored, Liverpool never lost a game. Following his sojourn abroad, the prodigal son is back knocking in the goals at Anfield. Ian Rush's autobiography was a sports bestseller and this, his second book, will make equally compelling reading for all football supporters.

192 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1989