Napoli's Nigerian forward Victor Osimhen reacts to Salernitana's equalizer at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium, in Naples, on April 30.FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images
Sunday was supposed to be the day. Not just the day, but the best day in 33 years, when Naples was to erupt like Vesuvius in a fireball of ecstasy.
Everything was set for the biggest street party in Europe in celebration of Napoli soccer club’s inevitable win against Salernitana, a lowly ranked Serie A team. “Football is like a religion here,” said Vincenzo Oste, 45, a sculptor who runs a hotel in the city. “Saint Gennaro, who is the patron saint of Naples, our protector, will give us our miracle today.”
The city centre was closed to traffic. The maze of narrow streets were decorated with azure Napoli banners and flags, many of them featuring images of Maradona, the Argentine superstar who led the team to its last national title, in 1990.
Families got together before the afternoon Napoli-Salernitana game at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium for a celebratory lunch. That meant fish, the traditional festive meal in Naples, and copious amounts of Greco di Tufo and other varieties of crisp white local wines. In the midafternoon, when the game started, the smell of cooked fish still lingered in the air, the horns blared, and smoke from blue flares filled the streets.
Knots of Neapolitans watching the game on street screens roared when Napoli scored midway through the second half – victory seemed assured. But Salernitana’s defence was formidable and the southern Italian team equalized with six minutes to go in regular time.
The game ended in a tie, which, mathematically speaking, was not enough for Naples to clinch the Scudetto, as the Serie A title is known. Naples went into an immediate funk. “I am so sad,” said Loredana Esposito, a fanatic Napoli fan who works in a clothing store. “We were ready for the biggest party since Maradona.”
Napoli fans cheer during the Serie A game against Salernitana.ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images
But the arithmetic says it is almost impossible for Napoli not to take the Scudetto some time this week, with Thursday the most likely day, when it goes up against Udinese. Napoli has an 18-point lead over Lazio, the team in second spot in the Serie A rankings.
In spite of Napoli’s non-victory on Sunday, the team has already been hailed as one of the greatest comeback stories in the history of European soccer.
Napoli’s decline began even before Maradona left the team in disgrace in 1992 – he had served a 15-month ban for failing a cocaine drug test. One of the hottest, most glamorous teams in Europe fell apart quickly. It was relegated to Serie B, then Serie C, and was declared bankrupt in 2004.
That year, an unlikely soccer fanatic, movie mogul Aurelio De Laurentiis, the nephew of famed Italian film producer Dino De Laurentiis, formed a new company to rescue Napoli. At first, Neapolitans, a notoriously cynical though outgoing crowd, were non-believers. What did a film guy know about soccer? A lot, as it turned out.
De Laurentiis broke all the rules in rebuilding the team. He learned how to do more with less – because there is no other choice. Incredibly, Napoli actually reduced its payroll in recent years, bucking the trend of paying the GDP of small countries to buy superstars.
Two years ago, he recruited a new manager, Luciano Spalletti, who had successful, if sometimes spotty, careers at several Italian clubs, including Roma and Inter Milan, but had never won a Scudetto. Together, they sold most of their prominent, older players, including Lorenzo Insigne, a hometown boy who last year went to Toronto FC, and Dries Mertens, who had been Napoli’s top scorer in history. They cut more than €10-million (about $14.9-million) from their already low wage bill, and Napoli fans were aghast.
At that point, Napoli bosses apparently borrowed a lesson from the book and film of the same name Moneyball (starring Brad Pitt) and used data analytics and adventurous scouting to find undervalued players in overlooked parts of the planet. In came South Korean Kim Min-jae, Macedonian Elif Elmas, Mexico’s Hirving (Chucky) Lozano and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia from Georgia. Two years earlier, they bought Victor Osimhen of Nigeria, one of the world’s best strikers.
Napoli fans let off flares in the streets of Naples.YARA NARDI/Reuters
The fresh, young lineup, combined with Spalletti’s penchant for un-Italian, free-flowing, attacking soccer proved sensational. Kvaratskhelia, who is only 22 and was bought for a reported €10-million – cab fare by Premier League or La Liga standards – from Georgian club Dinamo Batumi, had Napoli fans in awe. “Kvaradona,” as he is already known, is one of Serie A’s top scorers.
On Sunday, the Napoli fans’ funk did not last long – they knew that their team, within days, would recapture the glory of the Maradona years. By early evening, the street of Naples were teeming with fans singing, dancing and cheering, lighting flares and waving flags.
In the ancient Spagnoli area, home to a street nicknamed Largo Maradona, which is decorated with a huge mural of the late Argentine superstar, Gaia Rubba, a 40-year-old lawyer, was all smiles. “Yes, I was a little sad we did not win today, but we will win,” she said. “I have been a fan since I was born. Napoli is like a mother to us and she will not let us down.”
In the crush of people, Mary De Caprio was similarly optimistic. “We just need a bit more patience,” she said. “We will win. It’s obligatory.”