Maradona`s Story 5

Maradona was already in Napoles when he noticed that in the last season his new club had saved from promotion for just a single point. Although he was surprised, he did not worry; as he was used to it. It was like returning to the beginning, when that team called Argentinos Juniors fought hard against the big ones.What indeed caught his attention from that populous, southern region he had arrived to, was the discrimination it suffered from the rest of Italy. He felt that since the beginning. When he traveled north with his team to play his first game in Italian League, in the wealthy calcio, against Verona. That took place in September 16th, 1984; the adverse 3-1 score, along with the flags showed by the rival fans, caused the mixture of both pain and eagerness inside Maradona’s blood. "Lavatevi!", have a shower, could be read on them.Italian football, the calcio, was already the League of Stars and the Napoli had the greatest; but, in order to shine brighter some other stars were needed. The first round of that first season, 1984/85 was the one of a team that could hardly save from promotion. Instead, the second one was completely different: the Napoli won more points than the team who was finally champion, the Verona of Italian Galderisi, German Briegel and Danish Elkjaer-Larsen.Along Diego’s hand, promotion was now an insult even in southern Italy’s dialect.Change of mentality was so evident that, in the second season, in 1985/86, and in association with Bruno Giordano, a forward he himself recommended, Maradona’s Napoli threatened and scared the powerful northern teams: it ended in the third position, and between the new number nine and Diego conquered 21 goals. Juventus, who that year resulted the winner of the Scudetto trophy, trembled…The final explosion occurred in the third season, in 1986/87. Napoli won his first Scudetto after a long wait that lasted for 60 years, leaving the powerful Milan behind, and setting the carnival in Napoles free. Consecration took place in the San Paolo Stadium, on May 10th, 1987: a tie in the result was enough for it: 1-1. Since that same day, and having no fear of heresy, the people of Napoles enthroned a new Saint: along with San Gennaro patron saint of the city, now there was Diego. Or even better, Diecó.Napoles, city of extremes, lived joy and frustration with a unique passion in Maradona’s fourth season, the one of 1987/88. That was probably the best start of Diego and of the team as a whole in its lifetime. But everything collapsed in the end, in such a way that no one could believe it. The thing was that the Napoli started like an unstoppable machine, breaking all sorts of records and statistics, things that Italians are very fond of, but when the final goal appeared at hand, the engine broke down. The Ma-Gi-Ca formula, composed by Maradona, Giordano and Careca, the Brazilian that had just joined the club, was not enough to avoid disaster: from the last seven matches, Napoli lost five and ended in a tie in two. The key game that was lost was the one against Milan, with a result of 3-2, on May 1st, and in the very own San Paolo. The reputation of an exceptional group was soon darkened. While many of the players were removed from the team, Maradona- upset by the suspicion- doubled his bet.During his fifth season, in 1988/89, the Napoli demonstrated that its good performance was not casual. Although it lost the battle against the great Inter, Napoli went beyond Italian frontiers: with Maradona, they won the first UEFA Cup in its history, making an extraordinary campaign and defeating the German team Stuttgart. The game of his final return was played in Germany, on May 17th, 1989. A tie in three awarded Napoli. The championship.At that point, Diego thought that his time in the club had reached to an end. Nevertheless, none of the team managers dared to open the door for him to fly away. That is why he faced his sixth season in Napoli during 1989/90 with great resentment. It is known that many times this resentment has been Maradona’s fuel. And this was not precisely the exception. Head to head with Milan, they made the decisive difference in the end. When everyone talked about that great Napoli of Maradona, the great Maradona of Napoli answered in his own way: winning the second scudetto in the history of the club. Consecration took place once again in San Paolo stadium, after defeating the Lazio by a score of 1-0, on April 29th, 1990.Just after this happened, the World Cup `90 started in Italy, where Italians had been eliminated by Argentina. Due to this fact, Maradona should have never faced his seventh season in the club, during 1990/91. There was too much rage against him, and he could not finish it. He played his last game on March 24th, 1991 against Sampdoria, in Genova. A doping affair that is still suspicious made him flee from Italy. Maradona did not say good-bye to the people of Napoles as they both deserved.Nevertheless, Diego’s history in Napoli is so great, that still continues nowadays. And will continue forever.