Quote
Almeyda, who played for Lazio, Parma, Brescia and Inter Milan during an eight-year stay in the country, insists the game in Italy is plagued by corruption, doping and match fixing.
The midfielder also suggests some clubs have fostered worryingly close ties to organised crime syndicates, fuelling a climate of fear among the players.
One of the most alarming stories in the book is that he was hooked up to an intravenous drip before matches during his time at Parma. He is convinced the drips were used to give the players performance enhancing drugs which have done serious long term health damage.
“At Parma we were given an IV [intravenous] drip before games," wrote Almeyda. "They said it was a mixture of vitamins but before entering the field I was able to jump up as high as the ceiling.
“Players do not ask questions, but then in the following years there are cases of former players dying from heart problems, suffering from muscular issues and more. I think it is the consequence of the things that have been given to them."
Almeyda, who gives a brutally honest appraisal of his own battle with alcoholism as he reached the end of his career at Inter in the book, goes on to paint a picture of a game where mafia influence stretches wide.
Writing about his time at Parma, Almeyda believes a disagreement with the club’s former president and owner, Stefano Tanzi, led to his house being broken into as a form of intimidation.
He insists he was not the only player worried about his safety at that time, naming the former Aston Villa striker Savo Milosevic as another who had a similar break in following an argument with Tanzi.
"I had a fight with Stefano Tanzi and several days later I woke up to find my new car was missing from the garage," he wrote. "Savo Milosevic was also in conflict with the club with a contract as high as mine and the same thing happened.
"One day my wife comes home and hears voices inside. She ran away and called the police. There was a message on the wall, made with machine oil, a message from the mafia. My wife had a premature birth. Following the 2002 World Cup I've never been back to Parma."
Almeyda denies he ever took part in any match fixing, but he suspects several of his team-mates did during a match between Parma and Roma in 2001, a result which meant the latter pipped Juventus to the title.
"Some companions in Parma told us that the Roma players wanted us to lose the game," he wrote. "I said 'no' and the majority responded that way, but on the field I saw that some did not run as usual so I asked to be substituted and went in the locker room. Money? I do not know, they called it a favour..."
Serie A
