Diego Armando Maradona is Naples and Naples is Diego Armando Maradona

Diego Armando Maradona is Napoli and Napoli is Diego Armando Maradona. An unbreakable bond that forever links the history of the city to the history of man.

In the surroundings of the stadium in the Fuorigrotta district, candles and small images, photos, postcards and letters have been seen since Wednesday night that welcome Diego Armando Maradona to heaven, arranging handkerchiefs and words full of love on the asphalt.

Perhaps the most famous story of Maradona in Naples is the story of the god Diego in the mud. A true story even if it looks like the plot of a movie. A story that is transmitted from generation to generation in these parts.

Maradona decided to play a friendly for charity in Acerra, a town in the spotlight of the media as it became the largest illegal waste dumping area in Europe.

The match was organized to raise the necessary finances for a poor fan who suffered from serious health problems. Pietro Puzone, a boy from Acerra, asked Maradona for help.

The club’s president, Corrado Ferlaino, opposed the match for fear that some players might get hurt. But Maradona wanted to play and personally paid 12 million lire to ensure he could and help the young fan. Diego’s vision of life was in favor of the poor.

Arriving in Italy in July 1984, on the day of his presentation at the San Paolo stadium, which cost 5,000 lira per spectator, the stadium welcomed 75,000 people who heard his words: ‘I want to become the idol of the poor boys from Naples, because they are like me when I was poor in Buenos Aires. Naples will be my home. ‘

During his seven years in Naples, Maradona kept his promise.

Lloyds Bank had insurance on Maradona’s contract, although Diego himself paid the release clause to allow him to play for Acerra, and reportedly yelled before the game: ‘F *** the Lloyds of London! This game must be played for that sick child. ‘

Maradona paid 12 million lira to overcome the ban on playing by President Ferlaino, who feared that players would get hurt on the field.

Monday, January 25, 1985 is, therefore, a historic date because Maradona became the first influencer in the history of football. The day before in Serie A, Napoli beat Lazio 4-0 at San Paolo.

Twenty-four hours later he appeared in the small camp of Acerra, 20 kilometers north of Naples. It was raining and very cold. In the Acerra camp there was only mud and there were no places for the supporters, but around the camp there were 10,000 people: under the umbrellas, on the balconies, on the roofs and the video is still on YouTube.

Maradona and the team trained in the parking lot between the cars and the fans. The game reached 20 million lire and the sick child was saved. The boy is older, married and safe thanks to Maradona.

All of Naples has been dyed blue in the days after Maradona’s death: from the Spanish neighborhoods of Naples to Vomero. The whole city is stained with tears and emotion over the death of an idol.

Among the narrow alleys of the capital of Campania there are choirs and words that narrate the pain of a city. News of Maradona’s death has accelerated proposals to change the name of the stadium in the Fuorigrotta district.

On the ground, in front of the stadium entrance, a large banner with Maradona’s face and the words ‘El Rey’ was placed while many fans left burning candles, blue scarves and even bouquets of flowers, transforming the area into a kind of mortuary.

The fans gathered outside Turn B, a sector historically reserved for the strongest wing of the fans, and they unfolded the banner with the inscription: ‘Oh Immortal King, your flag will never stop flying’, waving the great flag that for several years present in the curve of the stadium.

Mayor De Magistris spoke to Radio ‘Kiss Kiss Napoli’, insisting that the San Paolo stadium will be renamed: ‘It is a terrible day in a horrible time, we are living an incredible day. A few days after his birthday and the head surgery we lived through an intense month thinking about Maradona. He had already given Neapolitan citizenship to Diego but there was no need because he was already the son of this city. We know what it meant to us.

‘We have proclaimed the city of mourning in his honor. He did everything he could to make the city of Naples stand out. We feel more united also thanks to him. The stadium will be called Diego Armando Maradona because it is important for us to do so. ‘

Angeli Pisani, Maradona’s friend and lawyer in the fight against the tax collector, tells this anecdote about Diego: ‘We made a common promise: to lose weight. A month ago he called me on WhatsApp while he was running on the treadmill and invited me to do it and keep his promise.

‘Unfortunately we will not see each other again and we will not speak to him again. He was a golden boy, generous.

Once at the airport a Juventus fan approached him, asked for an autograph and he replied: “Even if you don’t support Napoli, you can take photos and autographs with me, but you can also have fun and change your favorite team.” “.

“He loved to convince everyone to cheer for Napoli and what I will miss the most is his smile, his will to live.” Pisani helped Maradona overcome problems with the Italian tax authorities and was ready to experience the last act of the terrible legal battle in 2021.

Andrea Carnevale, Maradona’s former strike partner in Naples, told Sky stories about the Argentine’s struggles to get out of bed in the Scudetti years between 1986 and 1990.

“We were at the camp in Soccavo on match day and Diego was not there. We left the sports hall and went to the stadium without him. At the time the games were played at 2.30 pm, the coach was Alberto Bigon, who could not explain why Maradona was not there.

‘I had a little more friendship with Diego, but I didn’t know anything about it. Around 1.30 pm Diego appears, Bigon was worried and did not know what to do. Often they would send two or three of us to pick him up at home, like when we had to play in Moscow.

‘I went to see him once, I pointed out that we had to go. He replied, “go away you son of a bitch” (son of ab ****) and so on. I left. Sometimes he would arrive an hour before the game.

After each game, Maradona always had a table reserved at ‘Sarago’, a restaurant on Piazza Sannazzaro in Mergellina, famous for its fish specialties. To celebrate his victories, Diego used to accompany teammates, friends and courtiers to the historic ‘Zapata’ or ‘Cachassa’ nightclubs located not far from his apartment in via Scipione Capece on Posillipo hill.

He loved the pizza he ate. When he returned to Italy, they secretly accompanied him to Luciano Sorbillo’s pizzeria to eat a Neapolitan pizza from the pizza maker Luciano. On the occasion of his honorary citizenship, he was a guest of the Pizzaiolo who made him Maradona’s pizza: ‘Maradona was happy and I was surprised by how calmly he waited for the pizza, taking pictures with the waiters,’ said a staff member.

Maradona and Napoli are eternally intertwined.