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Summary: True soccer story Tony Cascarino-The secret life
Review: Tony Cascarino, is an English born footballer with an Italian name, who played for the Republic of Ireland in the World Cup, by virtue of the Irish grandparent(s) rule, and was capped 88 times. Later, it was discovered that he did not have Irish grandparents, but he was certainly Irish enough on the field.

Cascarino's story is written brilliantly by Paul Kimmage, a former professional cyclist turned sports journalist and writer. Cascarino was a good footballer, not a brilliant star, but if you look at soccer as a metaphor as well as a fact, then on some levels his journey is our journey.

The author mirrors his own experience as a professional cyclist struggling to succeed and digs well below the surface to build a psychological profile of truths that we can relate to. The doubts, fears, insecurities, lack of confidence, that destructive inner voice, the voice of criticism, judgment and limitation.

Can you imagine playing for a third division club, and you are drawn to play Arsenal in the FA Cup. Talk fills the air about potential giant killing. Anything is possible in the FA Cup. Then someone passes the the ball to you inside the Arsenal half, and you have a clear run with only the goalkeeper to beat, the type of situation strikers dream about.

As you go towards the goalkeeper, your life flashes through your mind. You are aware that this game is being shown on national tv. If you make this goal you become famous, but your inner voice is telling you are not going to make this shot, that you will shoot wide, and you will become famous all right as the guy who missed an easy chance, and your miss will be shown on Match of the Day for years. Can you imagine what happened?

There are many other interesting stories, such as his infidelity. The warts and all marriage break up was fascinating. The Jack Charlton stories are very funny.

I remember being at a game when his team Aston Villa was visiting my team in the Premier League. As he left the field at half time, one of our fans yelled 'Cascarino, you're a donkey!'He looked up to where the voice came from , with a look on his face, as if he had heard that comment many times before.

I was not a big fan, but this is probably the best football ghost autobiography I have read.

If you are still wondering about what happened above with Arsenal, he shot wide and they showed the miss on Match of the Day for years.

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