I’ll Kidnap Gianfranco Zola: The True Story of Fabrizio Maiello, the Maradona of Prison

A fierce and moving story about the fragility of talent, the abyss of despair, and the deeply human strength of those who choose to rise again.

A promising footballer whose career is cut short by injury, Fabrizio spirals into a life of crime, becoming a robber and enduring arrests and stays in a psychiatric prison hospital. The peak of his criminal career is a plan—fortunately never carried out—to kidnap Parma star Gianfranco Zola. But just when all seems lost, it is football itself that offers him a second chance. Today, Fabrizio visits schools to share his story with young people: crime, failure, life in a psychiatric institution, and above all, the courage to change.

• A powerful memoir that combines the tension of true crime with the drama of sports storytelling and an extraordinary human tale of fall and redemption.
• Written by Marco Cattaneo, one of the most authoritative voices in Italian sports journalism, and interspersed with excerpts from the protagonist’s own diaries.