In 2018, the owner bought Bari, which his son took over, and fans accused him of caring more about the acquisition than the team he has owned since 2004. In 2019, the players mutinied after refusing to attend the Ritiro and days later, the bus left alone at the hotel was fired.

In 2020, the city administration banned the team from traveling to Turin for the derby against Juventus, which they lost on paper (later overturned). In 2021-2022, fans stole the manager’s car and told him they would only return it if he left.

In the summer of 2022, she lost her all-time top scorer, captain and vice-captain. In 2023, the organizers stayed away from the derby with Milan and the coach threatened them with a favor and resignation.

This team does not compete in any local divisions of the championship. This team managed during this period under coach Gennaro Gattuso to win the Coppa Italia, to be the Italian team with the longest running streak in European competitions (13 seasons), to finish in the top three of Serie A nine times in those years and from Thursday to crown the champion of Italy. Napoli have always been a team of opposites and the different seasons they have experienced show that.

The seven years 1984-1991 under the direction of Diego Maradona made the “Partenopei” a force to be reckoned with, the era of the “three tenors” (Ezequiel Lavezzi, Edinson Cavani, Marek Hamsik) made them a cult team, the everyone wanted to watch and the new era has made Napoli one of the best teams in Europe.

The belief that this year’s Napoli is a miracle product is superficial. The raw material has been around for a long time, from the owner, the eccentric Aurelio de Laurentiis, to the last avid sports fan who took to the streets after victories and named his children after club players.

Luciano Spalletti was brought on on 29 May 2021, six days after Gattuso left, and Serie A top scorer and hottest name in the summer transfer window, Victor Osimen, was on the squad from the first lockout. What has changed; The… synastry.

Assembling the puzzle with old pieces

It was July and at the presentation of the team for the 2022-2023 season in Piazza Madonna della Pace, an apologetic Spalletti tried to convince fans that more reinforcements were on the way. Dries Mertens (top scorer), Lorenzo Insigne (captain), Kalidou Koulibaly (vice-captain), David Ospina (main goalkeeper), Fawzi Ghulam (left-back for 7.5 seasons), Arkadiusz Milik (main striker) had left at the time and it would be Fabian, among others Ruith, Kevin Mulcuy, Adam Unas and Andrea Petania follow.

The need for a 16 percent “scissor” in payroll costs arose from the €277,510,000 debt in 2021 and fans couldn’t accept it. Theoretical picture of the split, with a fan shouting “Wake up” to Spalletti and the Italian coach trying to calm him down over a microphone: “Players came who brought excitement and more will come.”

“Why is it important? Don’t get me wrong, but Napoli have it. It’s there, it’s theirs and they deserve it. They’re the strongest team.”said Jose Mourinho ahead of his ‘Partenopei’ match against Roma at the end of January (in which Napoli won 2-1) and not because he was playing one of his usual brain teasers, having worshiped Spalletti a few days earlier in live coverage of the Italian TELEVISION .

At the same time, Napoli had also dominated their group in the Champions League in the first half of the season, dismantling Liverpool in the process. The only black spot is the Coppa Italia, where (with 10 changes to the starting line-up) they were eliminated on penalties by then Serie A bottom-runners Cremonese and even at home.

By March the gap to 2nd place had exceeded 20 points. Winning the Scudetto was only a matter of time. All eyes turned to Osimen’s injury, followed by that of Raspadori and Simeone repelling Napoli’s attack.

Lazio Roma’s home game was no problem. The -usually-two-point teams couldn’t make a winning streak to chase them. The big headache now concerned the quarter-finals of the Champions League and the away games.

The Anti-Fan – De Laurentiis

Napoli fans, particularly the organized ones who have opposed De Laurentiis for years, have reacted in a variety of ways to the team owner’s attempt to limit their power. Fans were now subject to strict controls and were not allowed to place flares on the pitch. Their banners were usually…censored and most were not allowed to be posted. Ticket prices increased, as did the documents required to purchase a ticket.

The new dates backfired. De Laurentiis required a police presence to move around town after receiving death threats. The organizers decided to remain silent in the home derby with Milan for the championship, in which they saw their team fall 4-0.

Ten days later, Milan beat Napoli again, this time at the Giuseppe Meazza, to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League. “It’s something I’ll never understand, seeing ‘Diego Armando Maradona’ for a team winning the championship after 33 years. If it happens again I will resign from the bench and leave.” said Spalletti before the second race.

Two days later, De Laurentiis met with the leaders of the Napoli ultras and a compromise seems to have been reached. With the intervention of Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piandedozzi, the two sides signed a truce, with fans returning to support the team and De Laurentiis relaxing the measures, particularly regarding on-pitch controls. “We are Napoli. The President and the fans unite for victory”, wrote a tweet from De Laurentiis accompanying a photo of him hugging fans.

The 0-0 at home against Verona on the same day didn’t matter. In fact, the fans got the atmosphere hot again in the stadium, which may not have changed anything in the end and Milan eliminated Napoli three days later, but the hatchet was buried.

In the next game, the “Partenopei” defeated Juventus for the second time in a sensational derby, which was decided in the 90+3 minute by a Raspadori goal. Although it was 2:40 a.m., around 10,000 fans had gathered at Capodichino airport to celebrate the triumphant players. Players descended from the roof of the carriage that carried them to their cars and shouted slogans under a sky full of sparklers. It was reminiscent of a titular fiesta, although it wasn’t.

This could come on the next matchday in the home game against Salernitana. Olivera’s goal got the party going, but shortly afterwards Boulagé Dia added to equalize to make it 1-1. The coronation took longer, but the Neapolitans had no problem. They made for another day of celebration. When they flooded the streets last Sunday, they did the same on Thursday.

Napoli fans filled two stadiums, the “Dacia Arena” where the “Partenopei” would play Udinese and the “Diego Armando Maradona” where they would watch the match on a giant screen. They ‘froze’ again, but temporarily, after Osimen’s 2nd-half equalizer gave them the Scudetto they had been waiting for 33 years.

The Descendants of Maradona

Everything was on Napoli’s side. Even the Omens. The team they faced to mathematically secure the Scudetto is the team Spalletti made his name for, Udinese. The team they eluded, Lazio, is the team coached by Maurizio Sarri, the coach who led them to a record 91 points in 2017-18 but failed to take them to the title (Juventus amassed 95).

This season was different from the start. The breeze in the city saved for big things. The children who got haircuts with an “N” on the back of their heads, the parents who named their children “Hvitsa” from the first round. These images first appeared in the mid-1980s and have not been repeated often thereafter.

Even the macabre moments led to the inevitable comparisons. “And they don’t know what they’re missing.” This message was written on a banner that was hung in a graveyard during Maradona’s spell in town. It was back on Thursday to celebrate the team’s third championship.

Naples will always be a city ruled by the figure of “Dieguito”, dead or alive, in three dimensions or as a colossal mural on a building. However, the city’s pride, Napoli, proved they can live competitively without the spirit of Maradona. They can win a league without him in the squad, with their only Argentine, Simeone, playing a marginal role.

Maradona is the most intense yet sweetest memory for the team. The past that shaped the present. Because of this and the name of the stadium, he will always be close to any success of Napoli, who proved that it can happen without him, but because of him.