Yes. Before the arrival of Diego Armando Maradona, the Naples already existed. The Fluff had his life and probably I didn’t know much about the club. The history of Maradona and Naples is a love story. Of two ‘blind’ hearts that are forever united with each other after the signing of the Argentine star for the whole of southern Italy.
A legend, a feat, that started on July 5, 1984. It is on that date that the Naples made the signing official of a footballer who had come to Barcelona as a promise, but who did nothad finished booting. A date that is a before and after not only in the history of a club that changed forever, but also in that of a city.
The panorama in Naples before the arrival of the Fluff it was bleak. Diego himself assures it in his Biography: “When I arrived I found out that he had been fighting for not being relegated to Serie B. Of course, the level of the squad was Serie B “. This is not an exaggeration. Is what really everyone assures that there was in Naples in the summer of 1984.
The facts thus verify it. In the 1982/83 season, the azzurri had barely been saved 2 points from ‘hell’. They had a coach change in the middle of the season, Pesaola by Giacomini. The following year it was even less, since they finished the 1983/84 season with 26 points for the 25 of the descended Genoa. Santin and Marchesi were his coaches.
The ‘Maradona effect’ was evidently beyond the merely sporting. Was a media boom for the club presided over by Ferlaino. Everything was spinning around the Fluff, that in his first two years put the parthenopeans in eighth and third place in Serie A respectively. The ‘hit’ was given in 1987, with the first Scudetto in its history.
The truth is that the arrival of Maradona to Naples it could have occurred much earlier. In 1978, Settimo Aloisio was the coach of Argentinos Juniors, team where Diego was just 18 years old. Aloisio convinced Gianni di Marzio, Naples coach, to sign it. The problem is that until 1980 foreign players could not be incorporated in the Italian league.
In Argentinos Juniors he was 4 years, he scored 116 goals in 166 games, and won two Ballons d’Or South Americans. Spent two turbulent years at Boca Juniors, team that had many difficulties to pay the ‘Pibe de Oro’, and in 1982 made the final leap to Europe.
A leap that gave the hand of Barcelona. The injuries and illnesses Maradona was absent for a long time, and he could only show his tremendous level in small doses. Two seasons Pelusa delighted the Catalans, in which they played 58 games and scored 38 goals. In addition, it was proclaimed league champion and Copa del Rey.
Diego’s arrival was forging since March. In the end, Ferlaino managed to bring him to Naples for 13,000 million lire, in which at that time it was the signing most expensive in football history. A signing that, in the end, would become little less than the arrival of a god, from a Messiah to the club. Turned around your story completely.
On the day of the presentation in San Paolo, there was better atmosphere than during games. 50,000 spectators crowded their stands and they died for embracing who came (and would become) as a absolute idol. The signing of Maradona returned the illusion to an entire hobby, which had just passed football hardships in previous years
Before the myth, everything was prepared for it: “Maradona arrived in Naples at 5:20 p.m. aboard a Range Rover accompanied by your attorney Cysterz Piller, the two operators of player personal television and the two Napoli executives who carried out the transfer operation. “, ad Ansa.
Songs, walls, works of art, … even the dishes of the restaurants wanted to honor Diego. Maradona gave himself to that reception that the whole city of Naples gave him: “Good evening Neapolitans, I am happy to be with you. Forza Napoli“were his first words. A premonition of the idyll that they would live later.
We have already seen the ‘pretext’ they were on both Naples and Maradona before joining their paths. The truth is Diego was the one who built the squad over the next few years. His impact was brutal, until he achieved in just three years the historic first Sucdetto of the history of the club that we mentioned earlier.
The first season was improvement. Napoli came from touching the relegation and finished eighth, even if outside of Europe. Maradona played 36 games and scored 17 goals in all competitions. Jump on the course 1985-86 was more important: they finished third and they qualified for the UEFA Cup, under the command of Rino Marchesi.
The ‘work of God’ was completed in the 1986-87 season. Napoli had gone in just 3 years from being about to descend to achieve the first Scudetto in its history. Besides, that course they achieved the Coppa. A destiny to which the partenopeo club since 1984. From the moment they received Diego Armando Maradona as a Messiah. The Argentine was in charge of becoming it with over the years.
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