“We are 13 points ahead of the second (Inter Milan, editor’s note). Now we can only lose it through our own fault, everything is in our hands, ”says Mirko Brandini, 18, who came from Tuscany with two friends to follow this so “important” victory snatched from the Giallorossi.
All three, Napoli scarves around their necks, hung around the stadium renamed at the end of 2020 with the name of Maradona, just after the death of the idol, to savor the euphoria bathing the city. The fever has gone up a notch since the spectacular victory against Juventus (5-1) on January 13, a key match in the eyes of many tifosi. But don’t tell them that the champion’s green-white-red crest is already sewn on Napoli’s tunic.
“A whole different story”
“You should never say that, we are superstitious in Naples”, warns Esther, who came from the nearby Amalfi Coast, crossed in the Spanish districts in front of the fresco painted in 1990 in honor of “Diego”. “It is not said, it is match after match”, confirms, not far, Luca Improta, a thirty-year-old employee in a toy company. But he himself finds it difficult not to project himself: “I experienced Italy’s victory at the World Cup (in 2006), at the Euro (in 2021), that’s a whole different story! We have been waiting for it for so long…” “It would also be revenge on the north, from a footballing but also social and cultural point of view”, he adds.
“For us, winning is difficult, for economic, social, political, cultural reasons”, adds another Neapolitan, Pasquale Esposito. This retired teacher, 68, experienced the glorious hours of the Maradona era and the “magic moment” of the first scudetto. “I was working in Milan. I had gone to Turin, to San Siro, to follow matches and I had had the pleasure of seeing Maradona play. But the best part was when I came back to Naples. On a highway toll gate, it was written ”Welcome to the city of the scudetto”. For me, who was coming back, it was a unique emotion, ”he describes.
“A hell of a mess”
Giuseppe Bruscolotti was on the pitch, alongside Maradona, when Naples won this first league title. “The game was different, the players were different, no parallel is possible with the current team. What matters is that everyone makes their own story…”, underlines the ex-defender, 71 years old. “We are part of history, but they too, with their goals, are entering it. Only the title remains to enter it definitively”, he adds about the team of Luciano Spalletti, estimating that “Naples will be champions: history says that a club having made so many points during the first leg has always won”.
Daniele Bellini, the official announcer of the Maradona stadium, is also on cloud nine in a “hot” stadium at all matches. “In the 80s, I was five, six years old when Maradona won the first scudetto, and eight or nine when he won the second… We are living a dream, and we hope not to wake up before June! “, he launches.
