Frágil, mi historia

In 1995 Marco Van Basten officially said goodbye as a soccer player at the age of thirty. He had not been able to play for AC Milan for the past two years due to a persistent ankle injury from ten years ago. Following his dismissal, Van Basten took several years off, retiring as a public figure to focus primarily on golf. He never liked being the focus of attention, but now that he doesn't have a major role as a footballer, the disappointment and frustration is greater than ever. Disappointed in a career that he could not continue developing; misunderstanding and anger regarding the medical treatment of his chronic injury, the failure of the doctors, his own role during his career. What do you have when you are no longer the person you were for years, the footballer, the best player in the world? In 2003, eight years after his retirement as a footballer, Van Basten took the coaching course and became the coach of the Ajax subsidiary, the Netherlands national team and again the Ajax first team. In May 2009, after the last game of the season, he resigned. The experience left him with a bittersweet taste, of stress and of little power in the management of the team. Despite his worldwide fame, Marco Van Basten has always been a mysterious figure, an enigma, someone who has always kept his cards close to his chest. Certainly intelligent, analytically brilliant, eloquent, but at the same time, apparently impassive. In Frágil he proves otherwise. An exhaustive, raw and honest book, but above all, a book that reveals his life: his youth, the complicated relationship with his parents, his own family, his career; his madness in Italy, Euro 1988, his relationship with Johan Cruyff, the painful history of his ankle and the unthinkable financial setbacks.