When football entered my life, it didn’t leave space for much else.

Even though it didn’t take away, nor ever will, my passion for films, music, and a glass of wine, it became the center of my life, including my very ambitious professional goals.

Getting up every very early Saturdays and Sundays to watch marathons of matches, staying up late during Champions League matchdays to watch three matches, and doing what it takes to watch an important match is a routine that I have kept in the last fifteen years of my life and perhaps will never change.

One night in 2008, I decided it was time to start writing some ideas and concepts I had already been forming in my mind; they had started to pile up, and I was worried they might never become a reality.

In the blank sheets of Lilien’s, my partner at the time, school notebook, I wrote out these ideas and began fitting the pieces of a puzzle I ended up completing nine years later after watching thousands of matches and taking notes and making analyses that sometimes prevented me from sleeping.

More Than 90 Minutes has truly been a journey of discovery, improvement, and even joy.

Although I sometimes leaned my head against the wall when I couldn’t shape an idea, or I actually wondered if someone would ever be interested in reading what, in my opinion, was a compelling text, I always found a way over the bumps in the road—the rejection every writer experiences with his own manuscript. Sometimes I celebrated as if I had scored a fantastic goal.

This book represents the finished product of my journey. Enjoy.

Football is not an exact science. On many occasions 2+2 does not make four.

Nobody is the holder of absolute truth, and it is impossible to find a player, a manager, or a team that has never had to go through a hard time.

In football, you never stop learning. Its wealth is such that in order to continue to be a successful professional, whether on the pitch or on the bench, evolution is a compulsory process.

No team, formula, or system has lasted over time and been immune to the cunning of rivals or the decadence which is implicit in any process.

Indeed, that makes it even richer, as there is an infinite number of ways to reach success, just as there is an infinite number of ways to achieve failure.

Being coherent, consistent, daring, astute, mentally strong, humble, indefatigable, and brave are the basic ingredients to achieve a long and fruitful career in this art.

Only those who are great know how to mix them and make the magic cocktail.