Napoli fans are ready to join Maradona in the sky – 04/28/2023 – Sport

“When I arrived at Napoli, we were training on a muddy field. When I left, we were training on a muddy field,” said Diego Maradona.

The trajectory of the Argentine in the club and in the city was cinematic and, to the surprise of no one, it was turned into films and documentaries. The story of the irascible star player who, almost single-handedly, transformed a losing team into the country’s main force, before diving into drugs, was too good not to be told in books as well.

The southern crowd that went to stadiums in northern Italy to hear chants that they should “wash themselves” and requests that the lavas of Vesuvius wipe them off the face of the earth, became national champions twice: in 1987 and 1990. shirt 10 said goodbye, in 1991, Napoli began to decline that led them to bankruptcy and to the third division, in 2004. The revival was slow, but constant.

Thirty-three years after the last title, the Neapolitans are in the same place where they live today, they believe, Maradona, dead in 2020: in heaven.

With a 17-point lead at the top of Serie A and seven rounds away from the end of the tournament, the team could be Italian champions again this weekend. They need to beat Salernitana, at home, this Saturday (29) and hope that Lazio does not defeat Internazionale, in Milan, on Sunday (30).

If not now, then later. It takes a historic turnaround if Napoli are not to win their first league in the post-Maradona era.

“Our Napoli [do final da década de 1980] it was better individually. But as a team, today’s Napoli are stronger. It’s one of the best in Europe and very beautiful to watch,” he told Sheet former striker Andrea Carnevale, part of the winning team in 1990.

It is not an isolated opinion. Guardiola said that the team led by Luciano Spaletti is not one of the best on the continent. It’s the best.

Ruud Krol, runner-up for the Netherlands in 1974 and 1978, said he was the strongest on the planet. Fellow Dutchman Marco van Basten, rival of Maradona and Napoli as Milan’s main striker in the late 1980s and early 1990s, called the 6-1 thrashing applied by the Italians to Dutch Ajax this season ” massacre”.

“It’s the style of football that everyone wants to see on the field. The speed is incredible”, praised another former Milan player who is rival of Carnevale and Diego: Ruud Gullit, a countryman of Krol and Van Basten.

“This Napoli is always on the pitch to take risks to win. He doesn’t play cautiously. That’s why he’s so interesting to watch. He has enormous determination,” noted Carnevale.

Maradona and Brazilians Alemão and Careca led the club to the title 33 years ago in dramatic fashion. They only took the lead in the penultimate round, beating Bologna and watching Milan be defeated by Hellas Verona in a surprising way.

Helped to conquer the decision of the local Federation to give Napoli a 2-0 victory over Atalanta. The score was 0-0, but Alemão was hit in the head by a coin thrown from the stands.

The 2023 Napoli is a victory not only on the field, but also on the ability to assess talent in the market. He shouldn’t even be champion now. Before the start of the league, it lost the backbone of the squad that came close to the trophy in recent years, but always foundered in the final stretch.

The greatest scorer in the club’s history, the Belgian Dries Martens (148 goals), did not have his contract renewed. The same goes for Polish striker Arkaduisz Milik, captain Lorenzo Insigne and Colombian goalkeeper David Ospina. The sale of the Senegalese defender Kalidou Koulibaly to the English Chelsea was so shocking that Spaletti even said, jokingly (but not so much), that he would chain himself to the gate of the Diego Armando Maradona stadium to prevent him from leaving.

The fans were furious. In a preseason roster presentation, the coach even told one of them to shut up.

On loan, French defensive midfielder Tanguy Ndombole and Argentine striker Giovanni Simeone were signed. Cameroonian midfielder Anguissa arrived from Fulham, England. South Korean Kim Minn-jae was acquired from Fenerbahçe, in Turkey, and managed the unthinkable: replacing Koulibaly. The unknown attacking midfielder Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was at Dinamo Batumi, from Georgia, and was nicknamed Kvaradona. The total expenditure was 64 million euros (R$ 351.5 million at current exchange rates).

The Nigerian Victor Osimhen, bought three years ago for 70 million euros (R$ 384.5 million), started scoring goals. At 21, he is the league’s top scorer. Slovak midfielder Stanislav Lobotka has been compared to Iniesta by Spaletti.

It was the perfect storm to make Napoli champions again.

Replicas of Osimeh’s mask, which uses protection because of a broken sinus, is the second most purchased item by fans on match days.

It is second only to articles referring to Maradona, still the king of Naples. His image is present on hundreds of murals around the city. But at least now Napoli fans don’t have to cling only to memories of a winning past.