2023-10-03 00:03:54
The person in charge of the car rental office at Naples airport says as soon as you arrive at the counter: “From Madrid? On day 3 Real comes in the Champions League. He knows by heart the calendar of his team, a “squadra” that is immersed in the skin of the city and vice versa, because the Neapolitan people, with their history and chaos, also influence the character of the Societa Sportiva Calcio Napoli. The “azzurri” are Real Madrid’s great rival in Group C of the Champions League and have the visit of Ancelotti’s men to Diego Armando Maradona marked in red on their calendar this Tuesday. Napoli wants to do well in Europe, because it is the only way they can overcome last season’s historic season, when they won the Serie A title after 33 years of waiting. A victory that they spent three months celebrating and that represented their first League after the two they achieved wearing Maradona’s number ten shirt.
Naples has veneration for almost fifty saints, but on the list no one forgets to add one more, “El Pelusa”, whom they will never tire of thanking for putting them on the map and allowing them to win over the rich neighbors of the north, who always looked down on them.
Maradona, always present
In Naples Maradona has not died and his face and name are everywhere in one way or another. The man in the souvenir shop hears a Spanish accent and immediately starts singing: “Diegooo, Diegooo, Diegooo.” In a bar on Via dei Tribunali they don’t serve Aperol Spritz for the aperitif but what they serve and appears on the menu is the Maradona Spritz, in case someone forgets that he is in Naples. Photos, improvised altars, graffiti, murals, hanging t-shirts, everything is Maradona, even before reaching the Spanish Quarter, where there is a street literally consecrated to the Argentine genius.
A corner of the city that was not particularly recommended a few years ago, but with Diego’s claim it has become a pleasant walk for tourists, who are amazed by the fervor that is breathed towards the great star. He gave them two Leagues (1986/87 and 89/90), a UEFA (1989) and an Italian Cup (1987), so everything is little to honor his memory. At Bar Nilo, a bar in the center, its owner claims that he has a lock of the Argentine star’s hair and has it in a small jar in the middle of an altar that is a tribute, not a tourist attraction, which is why he gets angry every time. that someone dares to enter to take the photo. It’s not a show, it’s love for a footballer who decided on Naples when he could have gone to a big European club. Not even Diego could explain very well why he ended up there, although he always acknowledged that the connection was quick. “None of what they promised me when I signed the contract was fulfilled, but people gave me everything,” he acknowledged in a documentary. “I asked for a Ferrari and they gave me a Fiat, and I asked them for a house and I found an apartment,” Diego explained when he remembered his presentation at the stadium, which he filled to see the Messiah for the first time. .
There was also a monumental traffic jam that day, but that is nothing extraordinary in Naples, where entire families ride on motorcycles, including babies, and they overtake, invading the opposite lane, quite naturally. It’s a complete mess, but in the end everything works out and if Naples plays, all the bars in the old town put the television on their terraces and no one takes their eyes off the screen.
The flags commemorating their third Serie A title are still in the windows, with the faces of all the current heroes next to that of Maradona, which is timeless. And the fetish number now is 3 for that third League in which they swept their current stars: the Georgian winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and the Nigerian striker Osimhen, whom the club has miraculously been able to retain. What there is is a new coach, Rudi García, who arrived after the resignation of Luciano Spalletti, who left the club after winning the League and being elected best coach of the year in Italy. «Sometimes you have to leave for love. When you have a city like Naples in front of you, which deserves everything, you must ask yourself if you are capable of giving it to it. You come to Naples to win. The first year we didn’t make it. Now we have achieved it and I think that next year I will not be able to, so I am taking a step back,” he explained about the pressure of having the joy of the Neapolitans in our hands.
The blood of Saint Gennaro
A people that also lives pending San Gennaro, the main patron saint of Naples and whose blood liquefies twice a year to the amazement of those present in the Duomo, where the priest, accompanied by the police, walks around the relic and blesses it with it. to children and the elderly. They say that when the blood remains solid, it means that a catastrophe is on the way. One of the last times it didn’t become liquid was after Maradona’s death. In that case it was interpreted that the catastrophe had arrived earlier.
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