Napoli Wins Serie A After 33-Year Drought: A Celebration of Maradona’s Legacy

【2023.5.4 Italy】

Napoli Serie A Championship Carnival: After Maradona, the long wait of 33 years

Text / Lai Yun

“After 33 years, Napoli’s first league championship after Maradona, the whole city is burning with ecstasy.” Italian Serie A teamNaples(Napoli) are certain to win the 2022-23 season after the game on May 4.Armorchampion.Napoli has been unable to win the league championship for 33 years before, and the one who led Napoli to win the championship in 1990 was the legendary star of the team and the old Argentine football kingMaradona(Diego Maradona). Now the whole city of Naples is in ecstasy, the fireworks last night, the team’s flags, light blue jerseys, and banners with Maradona are flying around, it is conceivable that the ecstasy of victory will last throughout the summer-this is not only The glory of Naples is the elation of Nanyi, who has been poor and weak for a long time, defeating Beiyi.

The Serie A team Napoli has led the way this season. It has been at the top of the Serie A list for months, and the gap with other teams has continued to widen. On May 4th, the score was 1:1.Udinese(Udinese Calcio), with a total of 80 points, throwing away the second-placed teamLazio(Lazio) A full 16 points; Although the entire Serie A schedule has not yet ended, Naples and Lazio have 5 games left to play, but the 16-point gap already means that even if Lazio is in the next game With all victories and all losses in Naples, Naples will still be the Serie A champion in the 2022-23 season (a league victory can earn 3 points, and a draw can earn 1 point).

On May 4th, Napoli was a guest at Udinese, only one step away from the league championship, which made all fans hold their breath, and the Udinese midfielderLoverick(Sandi Lovric) scored a goal in the 13th minute of the game, which hit the fans hard, but in the 53rd minute of the second half, Napoli was scored by the strikerOssingham(Victor Osimhen) scored a goal to equalize the score, and then as the game time became shorter and shorter, the tension continued to rise, until the referee blew the final whistle, and Napoli took away 1 point to confirm the championship. Excited Fans stormed the pitch and celebrated with the players.

Napoli ended the 33-year league championship drought. At the beginning of this season, Napoli was not favored. The Serie A champions have almost been dominated by the “Milan duo” for many years.Inter Milan（Inter Milan）、AC Milan(AC Milan) andJuventus(Juventus) The three powerful giants are monopolized. In 2022, many key players in Naples will leave the team, including the captain.Insigne(Lorenzo Insigne), best marksman in team historyMertens(Dries Mertens), but in the head coachSpalletti(Luciano Spalletti) does not stick to traditional tactics, but relies more on the individual performance of the player’s coaching style, plus the 22-year-old Georgia striker who will join in 2022kievarakilia(Khvicha Kvaratskhelia) performed brilliantly and formed a strong connection with the team’s main player Ou Xinhan. Napoli quickly rebuilt and shined.

On the other hand, the powerful team in Serie A is plagued by injuries, and the Inter Milan strikerLucagu(Romelu Lukaku) Haunted by a leg injury, out of form and underwhelming, midfielder for JuventusPogba(Paul Pogba) also failed to return to the starting lineup after a knee injury. In addition, Juventus was punished by Serie A for 15 points in January due to financial fraud. The team’s ranking plummeted. Due to the successful appeal, the point deduction penalty was revoked, but the three-month period of point deduction has made Juventus’s front line arrangement chaotic.

Naples led by a large number of points, and it was determined to win the championship 5 rounds ahead of schedule. The fans who had been waiting for 33 years burst into ecstasy in the city. Those who paid attention to the game against Udinese, in addition to coming to Udinese’s home court with the team In addition to the 11,000 fans in the stadium and the 5,000 fans outside the stadium, there are more than 50,000 people in Naples’ home stadium Diego. Watch the whole thing on the giant screen at the Maradona Stadium.

After the game, Spalletti excitedly said:

“Napoli, this is dedicated to you… There are people here who will find strength to get through a difficult time in life because they will remember this moment for the rest of their lives and they deserve all the joy.”

Goal hero Ou Xinhan also said:

“I am happy for all the Napoli fans around the world. No one deserves the league title more than the Napoli people. They (the fans) deserve it more than us.”

This is the third Serie A championship in the history of the Napoli team. In the past, Napoli only won this honor in 1987 and 1990-both times under the leadership of Maradona. Before the arrival of Maradona, Naples was only a downstream team of Serie A. Because the political and economic strength and resources of South Italy were far inferior to that of North Italy, Naples was also affected by the “Second Mafia War”. It was extremely chaotic and even full of violence, but Maradona can be said to have led Naples to rise suddenly, defeating the Beiyi team and winning the first Serie A championship in team history.

Therefore, Maradona’s status in Naples is like a god, just like he led the Argentine national team to win the World Cup in 1987. All fans are sensational for Maradona. Maradona is a hero, a belief, and a god. So far, not only Napoli’s home stadium is named after Maradona, but Maradona’s flag, jersey, image, or his signboard can be seen everywhere in the city The word “D10S” on the back number 10 (the font is similar to the Spanish word “God” DIOS).

After the game on May 4, the city of Naples, which had been waiting for 33 years, was boiling. The streets were full of people singing, dancing, embracing each other, or jumping into the fountain with excitement. waving from all corners of sight, and the image of Maradona became a symbol of celebration, and the whole city sang:

The joy of winning the championship has written a historical moment in Naples. Not only locals, but also foreigners from Italy and foreign fans including France, Spain, and the United Kingdom also went to Naples to share the joy. This epic carnival is full of display: flags and ribbons representing the team colors are hung in the streets and alleys, fans make life-size player stands to place in the city center, and there are cakes, drinks, ice cream prepared by the store for the celebration. Amelia Bufi, a college student who came specially from Rome to participate in the celebration party, said:

“It feels like the world just stopped working… It’s a fantastic feeling that the party will last at least a month, or the whole summer: the Neapolitans put love into everything they do, including football of course.”

Another fan, Gaetano, said more bluntly:

“If you were born in Naples, football is part of your blood, our blood is blue (the color of the Napoli jersey), not red.”

as the president of the napoli teamDe Laurentiis(Aurelio De Laurentiis) to the fans after the game on May 4th:

“You guys always told me: ‘We want to win’ and now we’ve won, we’ve won together! It’s been a dream for 33 years!”

After Maradona, Naples not only did not win the championship again, but even went bankrupt and fell to the Serie C league. For fans who have witnessed the miracle of Maradona or are too young to experience it, the waiting process is already too much It’s been a long time, from the start of the season to the confirmation of winning the championship, it is a step-by-step process towards realizing the dream. I am full of anticipation but fearful, fearing that the glory in front of me will end up in the mirror, but the love of the fans and the endless loyal support are finally exchanged. A dream come true.

The joy of winning the championship is extraordinary for Naples. In addition to the religious enthusiasm of Napoli fans for football, it also includes the sense of class antagonism brought about by the long-term unbalanced development of North and South Italy. Northern Italy has a well-developed industry, and there are wealthy cities such as Milan and Turin. The Milan duo and Juventus (located in Turin) are both giants in Northern Italy. On the other hand, Southern Italy is a large agricultural area. The scale of wealth, influence and urban development are far away. Not as good as Beiyi, the South has become synonymous with chaos, poverty, law and order corruption, and the mafia. Among them, Naples even has a bad image of “criminal capital”. , “not bathing”, “cholera” to mock the Napoli fans.

In terms of actual development, Naples is still facing a serious outflow of young people. Young people from Naples are often constrained by economic development and have to move to Beiyi to find a job and pursue a better life. Due to the superposition of various social and economic factors, The league championship in Naples is like an elation against the inequality between the North and the South.

“Napoli Today” reporter Franco Romano described it this way:

Enrico, another Napoli fan who took part in the carnival, added:

“Winning the Ligue 1 title anywhere south of Rome has the same impact as winning 10 trophies in Milan or Turin.”

The performance of the Nanyi team in the 2022-23 season is outstanding. In addition to Naples, Lazio, which is currently ranked second in Serie A, and the same score as AC Milan, strive for the top four.AS Rome(AS Roma) are all teams from Rome. Italy’s long-term “wars between the north and the south” due to uneven development have been able to turn around and win on the football field, which once again proves the charm of football that affects the blood of fans, and The old saying on the court: the ball is round.