White Angels

John Carlin has lived in Spain for the last five years. He is half-Spanish, half-British and bilingual. He has worked as a foreign correspondent for The Times, the Independent, the Observer and the Daily Mail in such diverse places as Washington, South Africa and Nicaragua, and in recent years has written extensively on football. He has scripted a Channel Four documentary on Diego Maradona.

'Perhaps no other journalist - certainly no Anglophone journalist - can better Carlin's access inside the kingdom of Real Madrid ... Delves deep into the exquisite and often impractical world of football' GQ 'The pick of the bunch. It conveys the astonishing turnaround in the club's fortunes from early March. It describes with admirable firsthand detail the conceit of Florentino Perez and the Galactico transfer policy that so nearly struck gold. It details the marketing master plan of Jose Angel Sanchez and his belief that, so long as the team remain competitive, the brand is more important than the results' The Times 'Readers here who are curious about this phenomenon the rest of the world knows as "the beautiful game" have an energetic and enthusiastic guide in Carlin' Boston Globe 'Excellent' Paul Hayward, Daily Telegraph (best sports writer in UK)