When Napoli won their second league title in 1990, Nelson Mandela was free again after 27 years in prison. Democracy was returning to Chile. In Moscow, people lined up for burgers at McDonald’s. The Berlin Wall was being sold piecemeal, Romanians were getting rid of Ceausescu once and for all, and Sinead O’Connor’s Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” flooded the American charts.

Diego Maradona, before he was crushed by his own weight, faced with physical, mental and out-of-competition challenges, gave the Partenopeia their last league title in his day.

The city, built on the tomb of the siren Parthenope, the symbol of the Italian football South, which towered over the billions of the rich in the North, subjected to the fury of Vesuvius, could now point a finger in any direction. For 60 years, this team has not won the championship, but Maradona came to change its history.

After many years of decline, the team was relegated not only to the second division. He declared himself bankrupt and ended up at the bottom of the well, in the third national.

Thirty-three years later, without Maradona, without any showy change in the pockets of the Neapolitans, someone… Osimene, a towering Nigerian, someone… … Luciano Spalletti, again sent the Neapolitans to dive into the waters of the city bay.

The old-fashioned Spalletti let the players understand their role, the pressure and weight of a particular team’s jersey, and find the right chemistry. But with one difference. He didn’t let anyone look at them at the end. He taught everyone to look at each match individually. Match after match.

A prime example is Portuguese full-back Mario Rui, who has been with the team since 2017 and has been transformed this season. He was joined by South Korean Min Jae-Kin and Uruguayan Matias Oliveira. Young Elif Elmas from Macedonia or Mexican Chucky Lozano, a constant source of danger to the enemy’s defense.

As in a surreal movie, club owner Aurelio de Laurentiis and a renowned film producer bought the team with a simple promise: financial stability without transfers… sloppiness. The fans must have been horrified. De Laurentiis, what does he care about the ball? Another industry, another.

And still. It turned out that water got into the groove. Over the past 10 years, Napoli have finished second in four seasons. The above step, however, was slow.

But this year it was different. A dream come true, like a scene from a movie. Out of the chaotic nature of the city, a title-winning team finally emerged with players who had been ignored by the big clubs in the transfer market.

Napoli is not a club like the others that can pick players and get them. The southern team worked methodically, dexterously, and the football culture of the city should play a small role in the success of this year.

Unlike other Italian cities, Naples has only one team. There are two of them in Milan, as well as in Turin, Rome, Genoa. The Neapolitans support one team and this gives a different dynamic. Even when the team was in the third division, 60,000 people came to São Paulo to support them.

On a day when the club has a home game, little moves outside of this “whirlpool” in the city. Men, women, young and old dedicate this day to their team.

In Naples, no one is worried about what will happen in the summer. Everyone lives in the moment. This is Naples. Maradona’s legacy has given the blue shirt a mysterious glamour, all of which has created… a global identity that transcends its own neighborhood and spreads everywhere.

In this strange … country of the Italian south, almost everyone has adopted the phrase of the German theologian Dorothy Seele. When asked, “How would you explain happiness to a child?” she replied, “I wouldn’t explain it to him. I would give him a ball to play with.”