Andrea Pirlo's Memoir and Roger Federer Documentary
I Think Therefore I Play By: Andrea Pirlo with Alessandro Alciato Translated by: Mark Palmer
Published: April 13, 2014 Date Finished: July 12, 2024
Rating: 6/10
Andrea Pirlo was a serial winner on the soccer pitch. He won 116 caps and lifted the World Cup trophy with the Italian National Team in Germany in 2006. He won the Scudetto (winner of Serie A, the top soccer division in Italy) a combined six times with clubs AC Milan and Juventus. He won both the Coppa Italia and the UEFA Champions League twice as well. He was a deep-lying playmaker who orchestrated his teams attack from his position directly in front of the back line. His passing, vision, and ball striking were second to none throughout his long, illustrious career. Unfortunately for us, his talent for prose doesn’t quite match up with his talent for soccer.
I Think Therefore I Play was published before the 2014 World Cup at which point Pirlo retired from International competition. It therefore does not cover any of his time in Major League Soccer at New York City FC. The book is not a traditional famous person memoir. It’s not in chronological order and it doesn’t touch on anything in the subject’s life outside of soccer. The only mention of the protagonist’s youth details a soccer match when his jealous teammates tried to freeze him out of the game and refused to pass him the ball. He details how he used this jealousy as motivation to spur him onto the senior team and leave them behind.
The book is at its best when it details Pirlo’s stories with his Italy and club teammates and their superstitions and practical jokes they played on each other throughout the years. He recounts FIFA duels on the PlayStation and his loathing for pregame warmups among other things. Another compelling part of the book was a chapter on Pirlo’s relationship with his Black Italian teammate Mario Balotelli and racism in Italy and in soccer in general. Pirlo details how his agent almost secured lucrative transfers to Chelsea, Real Madrid, and Barcelona at different times throughout his career that I was unaware of at the time. He recounts his relationships with powerful club presidents (and Italian business and political figures) like Andrea Angelli and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
I think some of the language and metaphors suffer from translation from Italian to English. Fortunately, most chapters contain several helpful footnotes to explain allusions most non-Italians wouldn’t understand. If you are a soccer fan it might be worth your time reading, just don’t expect a typical linear narrative and reading experience.
Federer: Twelve Final Days Directed by: Asif Kapadia and Joe Sabia
Released: June 20, 2024 Date Watched: July 11, 2024
Rating: 8/10
While I respected and admired Pirlo as a player, I was and am an unabashed Roger Federer fanatic. I’ve been a sports fan my entire life and no athlete comes close to the esteem I feel for Mr. Federer (Derek Jeter is a distant second). He had as much grace on the court as he had class off the court. No player represented himself and his sport better over a 24-year career.
There is a fierce debate among tennis fans regarding who among the trio of Federer, Rafa Nadal, and Novak Djokovic should be considered the best player of their generation (and for most the best men’s player of all time). For me, there doesn’t even need to be a debate. The others may have won more tournaments or been ranked as the best player in the world for more weeks, but I saw it with my own eyes, Roger was the real thing. At his peak, no one could touch him. Combine that with the way he played the game with the flair of an artist and carried himself with such grace and there has not been, nor will there ever be, a tennis player that stacks up favorably against the giant Federer. Federer: Twelve Final Days follows Roger at the conclusion of that illustrious career as he announces his retirement to the world and prepares and plays in the 2022 Laver Cup doubles, his last ever ATP event with his friend and longtime rival Nadal. The movie combines behind the scenes footage of Roger with his family and tennis peers as they prepare for his final tour appearance and come to grips with the end of his career with archival footage of Roger’s youth tennis days and early days on the tour.
After a couple of years of trying to fight back to the top of the sport as he continually suffered and rehabbed from a series of knee injuries, the movie begins with Roger finally deciding to call it quits on his historic career. He does so by penning and publicly releasing a letter thanking his family, fellow tennis players, fans, and the sport of tennis itself. The film then follows Roger as he works out, fulfills media obligations, spends time with his family, and comes to grips with his transition away from being a professional athlete.
One highlight was getting to hear Roger’s wife Mirka reflect on his career and their journey together over 20 years on the pro tennis circuit. I don’t think I’d ever heard her speak before this film. I’d only really known her as the woman in Roger’s box that always looked like she needed a Xanax while her husband looked cool as ice on the court.
It's not a hard-hitting documentary by any means, but it is a must see for tennis fans (or really sports fans in general). As Federer and those around him face their professional mortality, it’s hard not to feel emotional along with them. At 90 minutes, Federer: Twelve Final Days is a worthy tribute to a titan of the tennis world.