In the southwest of Italy, in the region of Campania, is the city of Napleswhose recent history is inevitably linked to his football club and to a special figure: Diego ArmandoMaradona. But let’s go in parts.
As one enters the labyrinthine streets of the city, the pizzas at kebab prices become quite an attraction for the tourist, you only have to worry about deciding whether to accompany your Marinara with Peroni or Moretti beer. However, not even the best of cuisines can mask the decadent reality of the city.
Debacle extradeportiva
Above the pedestrians, flags and brochures of Maradona, with watercolor colors due to the effect of the torrid sun, lie next to the faces of Kvaratskhelia y Osimhenprinted on anthropomorphic figures to keep alive the memory of a ‘Scudetto’ that at this point in the season seems as distant as those of 1987 and 1990. “Last year was something unique, it will not be repeatedis consoled Giuliaworker at the ‘Mammina’ pizzeria, next to the San Gennaro mural.
Mural of San Gennaro, on Via Vicaria Vecchia in Spaccanapoli, in Naples / Guillem Ortu
If decline is what reigns in Can Barça, in Naples the ghost of another winter of 30 years to rediscover glory: ninth in Serie A, eliminated in the second round of the Coppa against a Frosinone candidate for relegation and with a change of coach a few hours before the first Champions League tie. A disaster that transgresses the limits of what is merely sporting. Because, more than anywhere else in the world, the border between city and club is diluted with the binomial SSC Naples-Naples. And when we talk about Napoli, we talk about Maradona.
local deity
Perpendicular to Via Toledo, narrow alleys open up that are the entrance to the historic center, where football can be felt in every corner. The area of the Spanish Quarters It houses among its stairs an endless number of paintings by the ‘Pibe de Oro’, in a collection that finds its epicenter in the imposing mural of Via Emanuele de Deo.
There, a fruit seller who shares a name with the street where his stop is located is clear about what differentiated the Villa Fiorito striker from the rest of the footballers: “The humanity that he had with the city and its people made him unmatched. [El mural] carry 34 years here and look,” he comments on the crowd of visitors without taking his eyes off the work of the artist Mario Filardi. “He is not a player, he is a god”he adds.
Murals of Maradona, in Vico dei Maiorani, Naples / Guillem Ortu
“Diego is Diego”
Like that of the Quartieri Spagnoli, thousands of portraits of ‘El Pelusa’ color a city whose identity is based on its football club. In turn, Neapolitans of all ages ask for donations for the maintenance of these paintings, which, unlike the memory of the characters they illustrate, do suffer the passage of time.
The initiative gains value in the context of misery in which the city is historically immersed, where, however, priorities remain intact. “Diego is Diego”one of the collectors ditches.
2024-02-20 18:39:48
#Maradona #Naples #unbreakable #binomial
