Maradona at Napoli: From God to devil

New Delhi, Nov 26 : When Diego Maradona arrived in Naples in 1984 following a major breakdown in his relationship with FC Barcelona, the city was among the poorest in Italy, in a hopeless situation and, on the football field, it was fighting to avoid relegation from Serie A. But Napoli, the team at Naples, shelling out a world record transfer fee of $10.5 million with the help of a bank loan, brought joy to the people of the city by bringing in ‘El Diego’.
He was termed as the saviour by the locals and nothing else mattered to them, including lack of civic amenities like sanitation.
Maradona’s was a record transfer fee, bettering his own but Napoli were willing to take that risk.
It paid off.
The Argentine legend won them the Serie A in 1987. Up until then, it was dominated by clubs from the north and centre of Italy — like AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus and Roma. No team from the south of the country had ever won the league but Napoli, thanks to Maradona, accomplished it.
There were street parties and festivities for a week. The locals held mock funerals for bigger clubs like Juventus and Milan, burning their coffins, putting up death notices and even saying that the other Italy, i.e. the North has been defeated. North is where the wealth lay and where the bigger clubs were based. Napoli, the poor city was painted with Maradona’s murals.