Naples becomes Italian champion and celebrates enthusiastically

Status: 05/05/2023 09:11 a.m

Ecstasy in a battered city: after decades, Naples is Italian champion again. That is a satisfaction for the people. One person died and many were injured during the celebrations.

They have been waiting for this joy for 33 years. Bonfires were lit in the Piazza del Plebiscito in central Naples when the title was finally won.

Diego Armando Maradona was in the team for the last triumph. “We were children then. We’ve been hoping for it for 33 years, now it’s an incredible feeling. We love our city and this night is ours,” says a happy woman.

Happy dances in the city center

After the final whistle in the away game in Udine, hundreds of thousands of people streamed into the city center of Naples to celebrate the championship title with firecrackers, chants and horns, Bengali fire, flags and joyful dancing. “Luckily we’ve done it now. A great Naples! We showed that we can overcome difficulties. It wasn’t just the team that won, but the great people of Naples,” says one fan.

For the people in the southern Italian metropolis, where football is lived as intensively as in few other cities, winning the title is not only joy, but also satisfaction. “It’s a city that’s often misrepresented,” says one man. There is talk of crime and what doesn’t work there. “But tonight you can see what Naples is: a great city, people with big hearts.”

One dead and hundreds injured at cover party

The championship celebration in Naples has been overshadowed by riots. The Italian news agency Ansa reports, citing the police, that there was one dead. The 26-year-old died with gunshot wounds in a hospital where he had already been admitted in poor condition.

It is unclear whether he was shot in a targeted manner or whether someone accidentally hit him. Three other people were taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds. According to initial findings, they were involved in the same incident.

A total of more than 200 people came to emergency rooms, reported the “Gazzetta dello Sport”, around 100 of them with moderate and serious injuries. Many people injured their hands from pyrotechnics, and a number of stab wounds were also recorded. Eye and face injuries from firecracker explosions and smoke inhalation were also reported.

Spalletti had to wait a long time for recognition

While Napoli reveled all night, there was one in Udine who failed to celebrate long after the final whistle: the father of this unexpected championship – Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti.

For those who are used to working hard all the time, it’s a problem to be overjoyed – not even at the moment of victory, he explained. “That’s just the way I am. I know it’s a limit, because of course it takes away a bit of the happiness you should have.”

Spalletti often emphasizes that he comes from a humble social background. As a coach, he received little recognition for a long time because he only played it as an active footballer in the third division. In recent years, however, Spalletti has revolutionized Italian football as a coach: Naples’ attacking game was praised by coaching icon Pep Guardiola as the most beautiful football in Europe at the moment.

After the final whistle in the away game in Udine, hundreds of thousands of people streamed into the city center of Naples to celebrate the championship title with Bengali fires, flags and dancing.

Ex-Wolfsburg scored the decisive goal

Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo was relieved after the final whistle in Udine. “We’ve been fighting for it since the start of the season,” he said. “Now it’s finally perfect and it’s a well-deserved title win.” The team played an exceptional championship and ended it in the best way.

For months, SSC Napoli dominated the Italian league with thrilling football. The 1-1 draw in Udine gave the side the one point they needed – again thanks to a goal from former Wolfsburg player Victor Osimhen. “After the way this season has gone, no one deserves the title more than we do,” he said. “We gave our hearts, we were the underdogs, the underdogs. Not many believed in us at the beginning of the season.”

Napoli last won the title with legendary player Diego Maradona in the early 1990s. After decades, a team from the south is once again sitting on the throne.

Spalletti: “Great responsibility to achieve this success”

The success of the southern Italians is a turning point for Italian football. After decades in which teams from the rich north always won the title, Naples now sits on the throne.

And Spalletti hopes that in a city still plagued by poverty and high unemployment, winning football can do more than just enjoying a night out with the Neapolitans.

“There will be many of those people who might be able to get through difficult situations in their life because they are thinking in that moment how to overcome difficulties,” he said. “For us it was a great responsibility to achieve this success because these people have the right to be happy in this way.”

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