Mario Risoli – författare

From Tashkent With Love is a tale of courage, heartbreak and glory spanning four decades. It tells the remarkable story of Cardiff City's football adventures across Europe in the European Cup Winners' Cup. From the thrilling 1.0 victory against the mighty Real Madrid at Ninian Park in 1971, to the heartbreak of a last minute 3.2 home defeat in the semi-final against FC Hamburg in 1968, Cardiff's 24 Cup Winner's Cup games are all recalled by the best-selling author Mario Risoli who interviewed over 70 former players in the writing of this comprehensive book. Their 29-year European odyssey saw the Bluebirds face some of the biggest names in continental football - Sporting Lisbon, Zaragoza, FC Porto and Dynamo Berlin - and included their epic and pulsating 1968 quarter-final tie against the crack Soviet side Torpedo Moscow. With the game switched from icy Moscow to Tashkent, in what is now Uzbekistan, City were forced to make a remarkable 8,000-mile round trip to the borderlands of China and Afghanistan, a journey which still survives as one of the furthest distances travelled by any British club in a European cup competition.

When Pelé Broke Our Hearts is the definitive and bestselling story of  Wales's remarkable 1958 World Cup campaign. Now republished in an updated and expanded third edition, Mario Risoli’s highly acclaimed book contains additional material from the  players and their families and many more photographs and illustrations from the qualifying campaign and tournament.An incredible tale that features the Munich Air Disaster, a bizarre   qualification as representatives of FIFA’s Middle East/Asia group, and hilariously haphazard preparations, Wales battled through to a quarter-final against Brazil. But without the injured John Charles - the world’s most valuable player who’d been mercilessly targeted by Hungary in the previous game - the team were beaten 1-0 by the first World Cup goal scored by a 17-year-old Pelé.Heartbreaking yet uplifting, emotional and entertaining, When Pelé Broke Our Hearts chronicles a truly astonishing story that continues to be loved by fans of ‘the beautiful game’.