‘We’re capable of great things’: Napoli on brink of Serie A title

Naples, Italy – The streets of central Naples were quiet except for the soft buzz of TVs and radios all tuned to the same match: Juventus v Napoli. But as the game went into stoppage time, the silence was broken by a collective gasp followed by a burst of cheers and whistles as Napoli scored to make it 1-0.

When Napoli swept to victory last weekend, the rumble could be heard of people jumping up and down in their homes, like a train moving through the city.

The win means that if league leaders Napoli beat local rivals Salernitana on Sunday and second-placed Lazio fail to beat Inter Milan on the same day, the Partenopei will win Serie A for the third time in their history and the first time since Diego Maradona led them to victory. the Scudetto in 1990.

Napoli fans flocked to Capodichino airport to welcome the players to Naples after the game against Juventus. Napoli wins the national title on Sunday.

Absolutely stunning view from the rear window of the Napoli team bus at 3am as they landed back in Naples after beating Juventus in Turin.

After 33 years, Napoli can crown itself champion next week.

Incredible pack of motorcycles following them pic.twitter.com/xKfbO1guzJ

— Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) April 24, 2023

In anticipation, residents of the city have filled nearly every street with flags, banners and blue-and-white plastic ribbons criss-crossing the balconies. Some have repainted buildings and walls in the team’s colors.

Bakeries sell blue and white bread, bars have introduced blue drinks and patisseries are full of cakes decorated with the faces of Napoli players.

Throughout Naples, groups of people spontaneously erupt in Napoli chants. The city is in a state of tense anticipation of major celebrations.

The municipality has already closed several streets to non-emergency traffic and designated party points in several of the city’s largest squares.

It is a situation that was unthinkable for Napoli fans just a few years ago. And for many Neapolitans, the celebrations will symbolize much more than a beloved soccer team winning a championship.

‘Tragedy After Tragedy’

Andrea Bartolo, a 37-year-old office worker from the Spanish Quarters district, told Al Jazeera about the pain that followed when Maradona left the club in 1992 and the dark days that followed – including relegations and being forced to restart Serie C1 after the club was declared bankrupt in 2004.

“After Maradona, it was just tragedy after tragedy,” said Bartolo. “People [in Naples] started to become fans of other teams because of how terrible the Napoli team was.

This fall from greatness was particularly painful for Neapolitans after two league titles and a UEFA Cup victory with Maradona brought not only football glory to the city, but also a form of defiance and a rebuke of the discrimination and the social and economic problems faced by the region faced.

Napoli is the target of chants calling for the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and destroying the city; banners citing Italian eugenicist Cesare Lombroso, who believed southern Italians were born criminals; and most recently an Atalanta fan who spat on a crowd of Neapolitans, calling them ethnic insults.

In press conferences, Maradona spoke out against the discrimination both he and Napoli faced when playing in the north.

“He was a symbol of the south, not just of southern Italy, but of the south of the world,” said Bartolo. “He fought the North single-handedly.”

Bartolo said a first Serie A title in more than three decades would vindicate a team and city largely seen as an underdog.

“It’s like a small, local shop beating a big company,” he said. “It would be a slap in the face to them, and it would show them that we are really capable of great things.”

The Resurrection of Naples

Film producer Aurelio De Laurentiis bought the club after the bankruptcy and oversaw prudent investments, the smart recruitment of cheap but exceptional players and the hiring of respected and experienced coaches.

Meanwhile, even while playing in the third tier, Napoli maintained the support of their large and passionate fan base – breaking the Serie C attendance record with 51,000 fans in a single match, often attracting more attendance than most Serie A clubs.

Successive promotions took them back to Italy’s top flight, and by the 2010–11 season they were back in contention for the title and had qualified for the Champions League.

Progress has continued under Napoli’s charismatic current coach, Luciano Spalletti, who emphasizes attacking football based on possession.

Napoli’s Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen is by far the top scorer in Serie A this season with 21 goals. He has created a rich partnership with Georgian winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, signed for just €10 million [$11.1m] from Dinamo Batumi. He has been nicknamed “Kvaradona” for his skills, which evoke memories of the Argentine legend.

Napoli already made history this season by reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the first time, although they narrowly lost to compatriot AC Milan.

In the league, they have blown the entire league and are currently on top with a whopping 17 points with seven games left. It’s only a matter of when, not if they take the title.

Umberto Iannaccone, a 70-year-old resident of the historic center, sits in a squat wooden chair in the center of a shrine he created for the Napoli team. Nestled between two historic buildings, its corner is plastered with blue and white posters of Napoli players and little cardboard cutouts with handwritten sayings. On a poster of Maradona, he has handwritten a speech bubble that says, “Down with the Mafia.”

Many Neapolitans still feel a deep sense of state neglect and abuse, as the city has a poverty rate three times the national average, a crippling youth unemployment rate of about 50 percent, and an entrenched organized crime.

Although Naples has experienced a tourism boom over the past five years, the average resident has not noticed much of this in their daily lives or their job opportunities.

“Give us jobs, give us schools, give us opportunities,” said Iannaccone.

This feeling of abandonment is widespread not only among Napoli fans, but also in the city as a whole and is reflected in graffiti around the city with phrases such as “Napoli is not Italy” or “We are not the brothers of the north”.

From a balcony in the street of Iannaccone hangs a Napoli flag which has been slightly modified to represent the symbol of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies which, before Italian unification in 1861, covered most of southern Italy .

Street vendors and local shops often hang a Napoli flag with the symbol on it as a way of showing that football and the north-south divide are linked. Football is seen as a microcosm of the problems facing Italian society, and when Napoli or other southern teams play against northern teams, it is seen as a struggle in both physical and metaphorical terms.

Football is one of the ways Neapolitans can be proud of their city and their identity, while escaping the problems of their daily lives for about 90 minutes.

“It is a release of emotion. You can forget your life for a moment and just be in that moment,” Rosario, a 56-year-old mechanic, told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, Iannaccone says becoming champions won’t solve Naples’ social, political and economic problems, but winning Serie A again after more than three decades would show that despite all the problems, Napoli has been able to survive and prosper again.

“If Napoli wins, we will all be united under one banner to shake off all the oppression and discrimination we have endured in recent years,” he said.

“People don’t have much, so let them enjoy what little they have.”