'Napoli in paradise' – Scudetto success sparks wild celebrations in the city after 33-year wait
Luciano Spalletti's side secured the title following a 1-1 draw at Udinese on Thursday
Naples’ night sky was filled with fireworks and flares. The party had been ready for weeks and on Thursday, the blue touch paper was finally lit: 774 kilometres away in the northern city of Udine, the Serie A leaders picked up the point they required to transform into reality what has been a formality for some time. After 33 years, or 12,058 days to be precise, Napoli were champions of Italy again.
Luciano Spalletti’s side could have clinched it at the weekend. After second-placed Lazio lost at Inter on Sunday, Napoli needed only to beat Salernitana at home to wrap up the title in front of their fans, but they were denied by a late leveller from the visitors. Still, what is a few more days when you have waited 33 years?
The club’s two previous wins were inspired by the great Diego Maradona. Led brilliantly by the Argentine legend, Napoli won the Scudetto in 1987 and 1990. It meant more than a sporting victory then and it does now: a club from the working class and humble south punching above their weight against the wealthy, established elite in the north.
As with Argentina’s national team, the figure of Maradona has weighed heavily on Napoli. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that, since his death in 2020, both have found their way back to the top: the Albiceleste with the Copa América in 2021 and the World Cup last year; the Partenopei with their third Scudetto now.
Maradona will always be synonymous with this club. Their San Paolo home now bears his name and the famous number 10 shirts can be seen all over town, his iconic image everywhere from murals to cafés and restaurants to shrines in a city where he is idolised like no other outside Argentina.
But now Napoli have new idols. Victor Osimhen, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Kim Min-jae, Stanislav Lobotka, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Giacomo Raspadori, Giovanni Simeone and more. A squad of players assembled from far and wide: Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Cameroon, Georgia, Germany, Italy, Kosovo, Macedonia, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, South Korea and Uruguay.
Nobody gave them a chance last summer. Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis was hugely criticised as a number of emblematic players were allowed to leave the club, including Lorenzo Insigne, Dries Mertens, Kalidou Koulibaly and Fabian Ruiz. But the money was well spent on reinforcements from Getafe, Brighton, Fenerbahce, Fulham and Dinamo Batumi, plus a number of loans. The result? Napoli have not only won Serie A, but blown their rivals away. They have clinched the Scudetto with five rounds remaining and are 16 points ahead of Lazio in Serie A. Not even De Laurentiis, who is a famous film producer, could have come up with a better script.
De Laurentiis irked the northern giants a few days ago by calling his team’s imminent Scudetto a “title of honesty”, because Napoli do not spend beyond their means. He also claimed they would have won sooner had it not been for “repeated irregularities” with the bigger clubs. Earlier this season, Juventus were docked 15 points for “false accounting” in their transfer dealings, although those points have since been restored after an appeal. Other clubs have run up huge debts.
Napoli’s project is unique in that the club is run to make a profit and continues to be competitive. Unlike their richer rivals in the north, they have no debt. Getting the recruitment right, plus player development and coaching, is fundamental. It might not work every year, but it certainly has this season. “A sustainable masterpiece,” La Gazzetta dello Sport called it.
Now the challenge will be to repeat the trick next season and beyond, but De Laurentiis is keen to back up this Scudetto success. “We have to win it again, again and again,” he said on Thursday night. “And then the Champions League.”
That sounds good, although hanging on to their best players will be key as Europe’s elite clubs circle in the summer. Because not all of them can be replaced with clever recruitment. Retaining Nigeria striker Osimhen, who scored their all-important equaliser against Udinese on Thursday to take his season tally to 27, will be especially important.
But all of that is for another time. With the title sealed for the first time since 1990, the celebrations come first. “Enjoy it, Napoli – the Scudetto is yours,” La Gazzetta added. Oh, they will. “The party will go on for days, weeks, months, maybe years,” Italian football journalist Carlo Garganese said on the Italian Football Podcast. It just might.
Back in Udine, Napoli’s team bus left the stadium just after midnight. The squad will return to Naples on Friday and when they arrive home, the welcome will be epic. “Napoli in paradise,” La Gazzetta said on the cover of their Friday edition – and it was a headline which somehow summed up the mood of an almost divine, religious feel to this title.
With their team triumphant, consecrated and even reborn 33 years on from the club’s previous Serie A title in 1990, this Scudetto will be toasted thoroughly, colourfully and very noisily in true Neapolitan style by the city’s passionate fans as the celebrations begin in earnest. La festa è apenna cominciata.
"A title of honesty" ...unfortunately these are becoming rare in football these days, but I agree. Amazing for Italian football!