They came from nowhere — literally. In the mid-1990s, Castel di Sangro rose from Italy’s football wilderness to Serie B, powered by Osvaldo Jaconi’s underdog magic and immortalised by Joe McGinniss in The Miracle of Castel di Sangro. But behind the fairytale came tragedy, scandal, and an infamous fake signing that turned football into theatre. A story so wild, it could only be true.