A supporter of Naples pays tribute to Maradona.
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Alessandro Garofalo / AP / SIPA
Diego Maradona died at the age of 60.
The Argentine left his mark on the club and the city of Naples.
In return, the Neapolitans devote a real cult to him.
You have to have lived a match day in Naples, and not just in San Paolo, to understand what Diego Armando Maradona, who died on Wednesday, represented in the eyes of the inhabitants of this city.
It happened to us in 2018, one day in November.
PSG went to the foot of Vesuvius to play a Champions League match.
Marek Hamsik, new top scorer in the history of Napoli, and Edinson Cavani, returning to the holy land, are at the head of the gondola in the outlets around the stadium.
To their right, the imperishable image of an eternal god remains.
27 years after his last match in Naples, we continue to sell the old flocked jersey of number 10 for five balls.
pic.twitter.com/W3KN1UFaIm
- Official SSC Napoli (@sscnapoli) November 25, 2020
"The sponsor of the time, NR, having gone bankrupt, it fell into the public domain and it is possible to find good quality at this price", explains Mirko, historical supporter who prefers to be quoted as Neapolitan, point closed off.
“It goes beyond football”, like everything related to Pibe de Oro and this city, two irrational entities whose marriage could only work, even if the legend says that Maradona aspired to a certain peace by signing there- low.
Missed before the hour.
“My parents told me that the night the rumors about his transfer started circulating, they were leaving the restaurant, and everyone was partying,” Mirko continues, her voice quavering.
People walked out into the streets like they were celebrating a title.
It is the equivalent of Mbappé who would land at Sevilla FC.
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70,000 people will welcome him at San Paolo for his presentation after being transferred from Barça for 12 million euros, an absolute record at the time.
The future will give meaning to this early effervescence.
In Italy, he will win a UEFA Cup, an Italian Super Cup, an Italian Cup and above all two Scudetti.
“He won two championships in the toughest league when all the best players in the world were playing.
Zico, Platini, the three Germans from Inter, Falcão….
He wins UEFA by knocking out Juve in the quarter by losing 2-0 there.
One game later, overtime then in the 120th it was 3-0 for us.
My grandmother lived in the building opposite and she told me that that night she thought the building was going to collapse.
He brought in Careca to Napoli who was the top 9 with Van Basten when he could have signed elsewhere to make a lot more money.
And today Careca says he is the best player in history while it is almost a blasphemy in Brazil for Pelé.
He made the impossible possible.
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The 1990 coup attempt
Although he was ignorant of almost everything about the city where he set foot when he landed there in 1984, Maradona quickly identified with his resemblance to the Buenos Aires of his childhood.
Naples is still struggling to recover from the 1980 earthquake in Irpinia and is hit hard by unemployment.
Above all, it is looked down upon by the elites of the North.
"I had the impression of representing a part of Italy that mattered to nobody", he will deliver in Asif Kapadia's film (2019).
So much so that when it came to challenging Squadra Azzurra in the semifinals of the 1990 World Cup with the Albiceleste at San Paolo, he proclaimed his independence.
“Neapolitan friends, for 364 days a year you are considered strangers in your own country.
Today you have to do what they want you to do, supporting the Italy team.
Conversely, I am a Neapolitan 365 days a year.
He had done everything to rally the stadium to the Argentine cause, including getting off the selection bus wearing the Neapolitan tunic.
Northern Italy will take their revenge in the final.
This July 3, 1990, Maradona is booed from beginning to end, to the point of crying during the hymns.
He will quit the Italian a year and test positive for cocaine later.
Without hard feelings, Naples will logically end up withdrawing its number 10 at the beginning of the 2000s, while the club sees a return to Serie A after a stay in hell.
“He gave so much that we sometimes close our eyes, concedes our supporter.
Here he has always been accepted with his faults and his qualities.
The words of President Aurelio De Laurentiis at the microphone of RMC go in this direction.
“Maradona was a legend.
The most important phenomenon in football.
There is no comparison with anyone.
He was unique.
A genius, a painter of football: cursed and formidable, a little Caravaggio.
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"The Covid will go into 10th plan"
He will probably never be forgotten as he never really was since his departure in 1991. Today, Diego continues to be baptized in Naples, and, warns Mirko, “we will have to monitor the registers for future births because little Diego will bloom.
It would only be pure logic as the Neapolitans have so far known how to cultivate the memory of their idol through the generations.
“Everyone knows who he is, what he stands for, even in kids.
It must be said that the parents had prepared the ground well.
MaradoNaples - Fabio Sasso / AP / SIPA
Gennaro Montuori, ultra Neapolitan quoted in Asif Kapadia's film: “all Neapolitans had a photo of Diego at home.
In some, it was even hung above the bed next to Jesus ”, proof of an unlimited veneration that the announcement of the Argentinian's death on Wednesday came to revive in the light of smoke bombs lit in the streets of a city racing.
Its mayor, Luigi de Magistris, did not wait long to make it known that he wanted to rename the San Paolo stadium in the name of Diego Maradona.
De Laurentiis wants to show the face of D10S during his team's Europa League game on Thursday.
Naples weeps and celebrates its idol beyond reason.
“The Covid in Naples, it will go to the tenth level, predicted Mirko.
The authorities won't be able to do anything, it's supernatural.
It's Diego, what.
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