Spalletti napolitano – Kommersant

The Napoli football club secured a victory in the Italian championship ahead of schedule. For Napoli, who is coached by Luciano Spalletti, well-known in Russia for working with Zenit, this is only the third title in his history. The first two were mined back in those days when Diego Maradona himself played for the Novgorodians. The celebration of the triumph was not without casualties.

On Thursday, late in the evening Moscow time, Napoli played a draw – 1: 1 – away match against Udinese (the score was equalized in the 52nd minute by Victor Osimhen) and became inaccessible to pursuers five rounds before the end of the Italian championship. The lag of the nearest of them – “Lazio” – is an impressive 16 points.

Napoli’s winning the decisive score, of course, caused a surge of enthusiasm among the population of the city and the surrounding area, even despite the fact that winning the title by the team was considered a matter of almost solved in early spring (the Neapolitans in March painted some city monuments in the colors of Napoli – white and blue). As a result, there were night festivities and everything else that is inherent in an unbridled holiday, including shooting. And not just firecrackers. City officials said one person died as a result of a wound received during the shootout. True, says the prefect of Naples Claudio Palomba, this was not connected with the holiday.

Celebrations of such magnitude as in Naples, it would be difficult to imagine anywhere in Milan or Turin. Not surprising, given that the Scudetto almost never leaves Lombardy or Piedmont. Sometimes the title can go to Rome for a while (the last non-Milan and non-Turin team to win the championship was Roma in 2001), but then it is guaranteed to come back. Everyone seemed to get used to this routine, including the Napoli fans, who could only remember the stories of almost 40 years ago. Those times when Diego Maradona himself played for their team. It was with the name of the Argentine genius that both Napoli titles were associated.

Maradona led the team to triumph in 1987 and 1990, which gave birth to a cult of the name of himself in the city (in 2020, after the death of the super-forward, the Neapolitan stadium of St. Paul was renamed Stadio Diego Armando Maradona).

After the departure of Maradona, things went downhill for the Neapolitans. At the beginning of the 2000s, Napoli fell into Serie C, sank into debt, went through bankruptcy proceedings and even lost its historical name, Societa Sportiva Calcio Napoli. It went to the creditors. As a result, the club survived under the name Napoli Soccer. Everything changed after the team was acquired by film producer Aurelio De Laurentiis. He himself was born in Rome, but the family of film producers De Laurentiis is Neapolitan. From the town of Torre Annunziata (many consider it one of the centers of the Camorra).

Under the new owner, the process of reviving Napoli began. It was difficult but effective. Since 2011, the club has been regularly among the winners of the Italian championship (four second and third places each), twice won the Italian Cup, once – the Super Cup.

The only thing missing was a title. He came after the team was headed by Luciano Spalletti in 2021 (from 2009 to 2014 he coached Zenit, which twice led to victory in the Russian championship). Last autumn, Napoli took the lead and did not miss it again.

There is another conditionally Russian trace in the success of Napoli. Georgian midfielder Khvicha Kvaratskhelia played in Russia before the events in Ukraine (first for Lokomotiv, then for Rubin), after which he transited through Dynamo Batumi turned out to be at Napoli. The transition turned out to be super successful. A little-known football player in Europe in Naples has become one of the hottest young stars of the continent. Along with Osimhen (bought two years ago from Lille for an insane €75 million for Napoli), the club’s top scorer, he is a key figure in the team. On the account of Kvaratskhelia, which went to Napoli for only € 11 million (the current value of the player, according to Transfermarkt, €85 million), 12 goals and 10 assists per season. No wonder local fans nicknamed him Quaradona.

And in general, Napoli has a first-class squad. Its current value is estimated Transfermarkt, is € 629 million, and this is the first figure in Italy (Milan’s squad is estimated at € 547 million, Inter – at € 534 million, Juventus – at € 420 million). Unsurprisingly, Aurelio De Laurentiis has said Napoli’s next goal is to win the Champions League. This year, the Neapolitans stumbled in the quarterfinals, where they lost to AC Milan. But given the championship, they will soon have a new chance.

Alexander Petrov