In the footsteps of Maradona: on-site report from Naples

Diego Armando Maradona followed in the footsteps of National Sports (Photo: AFP)

Péter Csillag’s 2011 on-site report on nights full of dancers, a closed brothel and tears in Naples, in memory of Diego Armando Maradona, who died at the age of 60, on the main places of Maradona worship in Naples.

Memories of the heyday

A new era in Napoli history began when Diego Maradona joined the Barcelona team in 1984. The club, led by the Argentine forward, won the Italian championship title and the Italian Cup medal for the first time in its existence in 1987, and then returned to being champion in Italy in 1990 after two second places. But he took the lead not only on the national and international stage: he won the UEFA Cup in 1989 after beating Stuttgart in the final. In the European Cup of the 1987 and 1990 Championships, Napoli started with good hopes, but for the first time Real Madrid and for the second time Spartak Moscow (after defeating Újpest). During the soccer star’s Naples period, he received a gold medal at the World Championship in 1986 with the Argentine national team, which beat host Italy in the semifinals at the San Paolo stadium in Naples in 1990 before losing. before the RFA in the final. Maradona was banned from using cocaine for 15 months in 1991, after which she was hired by Sevilla. He has never played at such a remarkable level as during his years at Naples.

Via Scipione Capace 3 / a – in posillipói villa

A cleaning lady dusts the balcony carpet with slow movements, otherwise the house is surrounded by peace, quiet and peace. Not like twenty years ago … Neapolitans for a long time only guessed where the first man of the city (and the globe), Diego Maradona, lived. Today we do not live in a time of secrets, although the local rumor mentioned several possible houses before, the solution can now be investigated with three clicks: Via Scipione Capace 3 / a

But it is only then that the difficulty of the one who takes the trouble out of curiosity and climbs the receiver up to the Villanova hills. In the winding alley of the neighborhood of villas that leads to the villas, the number three appears in fifteen houses with a slight exaggeration, and about ten 3 / a of them. I am furiously photographing the third palace when an old man asks under pressure from his dog barking behind the fence to ask what the big click is up to. He smiles at the answer and then, appreciating my enthusiasm, leads me to the house fifty feet away.

„Is?!” – I ask with evident amazement, pointing to a moderately demanding building among the luxurious castles, taking into account the architectural trends of the area.

Maradona’s old village

“Is” – a neighbor named Salvatore (who lives four houses away, in 3 / a), in whom there is a high degree of mistrust, definitely dispels my illusions. As a first sign of this, he doesn’t say his last name, and as a second sign he suddenly runs away with a reference to his strict wife’s next steps when I also capture it in photo form. So far, however, he has said one thing and another …

“Eighty-three years ago, long before Maradona, we moved here with my family – refers the old man of eighty-five years to his old roommate of fifty. – The house was not his, the club rented it and the ground floor to Ciro Ferrara. He put it away, his father lives here today, although he is not at home now. But a week ago, Ciro was with him ”.

Uncle Salvatore does not speak on the air, the intercom has the name “Giovambattista Ferrara”.

But who is the owner of Maradona’s old apartment?

Although, in the meantime, the postman and the road worker who is drilling the road with him are involved in the deliberations, no one can say. Whoever owns the property, two things are for sure based on the activity of the maid, who is still lying on the terrace: she has a beautiful carpet and a gleaming window.

Bad street of notorious ladies

“What misfortunes we saw here at that time – like the old neighbor, pointing to his leg to indicate where Maradona was okay, then nodding to show where he wasn’t. – Tanti casini, tanti casini, much, much rumli! The bodyguards took care of the house both upstairs and downstairs, and Maradona just brought the women, I remember, famous dancers also came. How am I still going to a game? Not for much longer! Why should I go? They are tangled anyway. It was no different in Maradona’s time, either. Did you know he worked for the mob? “

Vico Sergente Maggiore 22. – the house of the red light

The huge green door is closed, the window palette too. The house oozes suspicious fragility, as if nothing had moved in it for years, as if it held dangerous secrets. The life of the alley is stirring around her, not far away a young woman shouts through the sheets, shirts, flags that hang from the balconies to the aunt in the front window. A pouting man poisoned from a doorway while pulling out the camera and photographing the house.

We are in the Spanish Quarter, the homeland of the underworld of Naples. Here, in this steep alley, lived in the late eighties Carmela Cinquegrana, the infamous fencer who probably played a bigger role than anyone else in the loss of the soccer world in the early nineties, while the world of drugs and prostitutes won a legend. He made sure the King of Naples had no shortage of girls and cocaine, his twenty quality employees were always ready to entertain Maradona. This is not a fairy tale, for example, in the early 1990s, an intercepted telephone conversation was made public in which two men asked Maradona about Ms. Carmela about “chicks and stuff.”

Who are you entering here …

The story is known from here. The striker failed cocaine on March 17, 1991, after a doping control after the Napoli-Bari champion, finished the brilliant stage of his career and had to leave the city. What remains of him in Naples is difficult to estimate. A safe child.

Several court rulings have ruled that no matter how reluctant, Diego Sinagra, the child of the bloodline, was born in memory of Cristiana’s night with Sinagra. The boy has had some success with the Italian beach soccer team, but nothing in his father’s recovery.

We know nothing about the future fate of my wife, Carmela Cinquegrana, about the red light at Vico Sergente Maggiore in the 1990s that “Supposedly closed.” Perhaps the work of chance, in any case, one of the first results in the Internet search engine for the lady’s name is a Naples dating site that offers casual hookups.

Piazzetta del Nile – the altar in the center

“… and that is the famous Maradona altar” – the German guide tries to shout the noise from the street while pointing a finger at the crowded group. Yes, this famous altar of Maradona, which is now not indicated in the Naples guides, has nevertheless become a must-see.

It is not easy to find, it requires attentive attention and detailed knowledge of the maps on the part of the tourist who wanders through the zigzag streets, but whoever reaches the terraces can get an exceptional experience.

Now does anyone have to decide if Divine is divine?

For example, with a Bavarian knight stomping his feet in such a crowd in front of the memorial site that he suddenly thinks he sees not just Maradona, but all the stars of Naples. As for the altar embedded in the wall of the house and supplemented with more and more decorations over time, examination of the relics on display soon reveals it, making it worth getting lost (even three times). This includes a photo of the divine I. Diegum Armandus Gennarino Maradona, followed by a special edition of the local newspaper II Mattino printed on May 10, 1987 – who does not know that this is the day of the first Napoli scudetto, thrown into the sea without any theory. and in memory of the legendary ten, a ten pound Argentine note was placed.

The connection with today’s team is provided with noble simplicity by the sacred image of Edinson Cavani, called Athlete di Crete, a soldier of Christ, but his most peculiar relic is undoubtedly the lock of hair that, according to the inscription, he once hung from Maradona’s head and released him in the “holy year” of 1987. a pair of scissors. But Naples not only likes to celebrate, it also loves to cry. A glass tube preserves the tears that fell in the city in the “black year” of 1991. If the “Neapolitan tears” come from the Diego who is leaving or from the abandoned people, it is not clear in the inscription. The size of the glass capsule, on the other hand, yes, if the tears collected by Naples had been collected, it would not have been a small bottle, but the San Paolo stadium would have been full.

There could be another messiah, not one

Salvatore Siviero 2011-ben “What does Diego Maradona mean to the Neapolitans?” “For us, Maradona and soccer are the same,” said Salvatore Siviero, a sports journalist for calciomercato.com, born in Vico Equense, near Naples. “We have achieved what we have always dreamed of.” I am not just referring to the two league titles, but also to beating Juventus, Milan and Inter. – What was it like to see him as a child? “I filled my room with his photo, but I also had shoes, a ball and a T-shirt with his name on it. Every game in Naples was a holiday, ninety thousand of us celebrated it in the stadium every week. With Maradona’s help, we could sneak into the world and say that we are stronger than everyone else. When he was on the field, the opponents trembled. – The first memory? – Diego’s debut match in Naples. Napoli-Argentinos Juniors was a friendly match, full house, and although the final result was zero to zero, it also aroused great emotions in me. My father took me to the stadium. I was able to go with him for the first time that day. “Is the Maradona cult in Naples fading?” “Not so much that to this day, fans still shout in the stadium:“ Diego! Diego! “For us, he is the best player in the world and will remain so forever. “However, all talents are looking for the new Maradona.” “We are not looking because there is no new Maradona.” A new Messi may be born, a new Cristiano Ronaldo, but never a new Maradona.