SERIE A
Osimhen’s cardboard statues dot Naples as city gets on brink of first title in post Maradona era
The feeling is palpable. The expectations are high. Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen will be part of the history as Naples, which club, Napoli is at the brink of winning first Italian league title in 33 years since the legendary Diego Maradona last played for the club.
With many goals coming from either the boots or headers by Victor Osimhen, Napoli are 16 points clear from the second placed club, Lazio as the Serie A enters its home stretch.
The city is set for celebrations as the entire streets are adorned in sky blue, the colour of Napoli. Provisions are in place for a party on 4 June – the final day of the season – but Napoli’s wait for a first championship since Diego Maradona strolled these narrow streets could end in the next few weeks. Fifteen points from their final 10 games will make it certain, even if second-placed Lazio win all of theirs.
In the Quartieri Spagnoli, throughout Naples’ historic centre, up to Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in Fuorigrotta and beyond, the streets are decked with blue and white festoons. Buildings and steps have been painted the same hues.
Life-size cutouts of the current squad stand in one piazza, club shirts and player posters are pegged to washing lines in alleyways and youngsters queue for half a block to buy Napoli-coloured panino at popular sandwich shop Con Mollica o Senza.
Among the life-sized cutouts is that of Osimhen, an almost reincarnation of Maradona in terms of goal scoring.
Hotel rooms for the next couple of months have nearly all gone. Expats wanting to celebrate, football fans intrigued by Napoli’s story and visitors unexpectedly caught up in this historic moment are descending on the city. Sporting success coincides with a tourist boom.
“Naples is experiencing a moment of self-recognition and rediscovery of its greatness,” says author Angelo Forgione.
When Maradona inspired Napoli to a first Scudetto in 1987, fans placed a banner outside the city’s largest cemetery proclaiming: “You don’t know what you missed.” Now, a generation too young to remember such glory are living it themselves.
“I was six months old in 1990 but I grew up watching VHS of Diego Maradona,” says Vincenzo Credendino, from CalcioNapoli24 TV. “Now this Scudetto is like reconnecting with that time.”
Tributes to Luciano Spalletti’s players intertwine with endless Maradona artwork. He is everywhere in Naples’ charmingly gritty and dizzyingly chaotic labyrinth of streets – bar windows, bumper stickers, on billboards and etched across crumbling walls in giant murals.
At Bar Nilo, a strand of Maradona’s hair rotates as part of a shrine to the Argentine. In an underground museum the belongings acquired by his maid’s son when Maradona left the city are on display.
“Maradona is like God here,” says 23-year-old fan Maria Roberta De Iesu. “He gave people hope. Neapolitans see themselves in Maradona.”
When Maradona arrived for a world record fee from Barcelona in July 1984, the city was still on its knees from an earthquake that killed almost 2,500 people four years earlier. Feuds between the Camorra, the region’s mafia, were as bitter as ever, unemployment was huge and the Bank of Naples was facing bankruptcy.
“Yet in a Naples on the bottom, Napoli, with the help of politics, managed to buy the strongest and most expensive footballer in the world and touch the sky,” adds Forgione.
Then president Corrado Ferlaino had to lean on the city’s mayor to help finance the deal, fans offered contributions to help get it over the line, anything to get Maradona.
‘El Pibe de Oro’ was everything to Naples, and Naples was everything to him. The city resonated with its Golden Boy not just because he inspired their club to two Serie A titles and a Uefa Cup but because they recognised him. He was anti-establishment, he echoed their principles and shouldered their concerns.
“Maradona was really good with his tongue, his mouth, his attitude,” explains Credendino. “He understood how to get the heart of the Neapolitan people, he touched the right chords.”
Maradona, despite his relationship with the Neapolitan mafia, brought “justice to the people” after struggles against the north that date back more than a century to the unification of Italy, says culture expert Francesco Carignani.
“He had many problems in his life but in Naples we only remember him for the joy,” adds fan Paolo Cimmino. “We connect him as a man to a conqueror – the south won versus the north.”
No club south of Rome has won Serie A since the Napoli of Maradona, Careca, Ciro Ferrara and a young Gianfranco Zola in 1990, and Neapolitans still endure hostile taunts from their northern rivals about crime, poverty, cholera outbreaks and calls for Mount Vesuvius to erupt over the city.
People here “are first of all Neapolitans and then Italian”, explains Bellini, Napoli’s iconic stadium announcer. They have their own language, culture and history. Naples was once a thriving European capital, it remains a city of intriguing architecture, Caravaggio, pizza. Most of all, there is an intensity to life in Campania.
“Southern people in Italy, they live everything with love, with so much emotion, in different ways to the north,” adds Cimmino.
Napoli had to fall before they could rise again. Financial decline, relegation and bankruptcy followed the glory years but the fans remained. More than 50,000 attended a game in Serie C in 2004-05.
“For our city soccer is so important,” explains journalist Elena Lopresti. “It is not only football, it is a social instrument, a tool to develop us as a society.”
Film producer Aurelio de Laurentiis seized an opportunity to purchase the club in 2004 and restore top-flight and European football to Napoli, the fourth-most well-supported club in Italy after Juventus, Milan and Inter, but one whose fanbase is concentrated in the region, rather than spread “from the Alps to Sicily” as Forgione says of the big three.
“De Laurentiis had a parachute,” adds Credendino. “It was the love of the people, always ready to go to the stadium, always ready to support the team.”
Naples, Forgione explains, is a rare European metropolis represented by a single club. “Napoli’s victory is the victory of identity, of those who live it completely,” he adds.
“In Naples, football is everything,” says Cimmino. “It is joy, it is love, it is fun, it is sadness. It is a way to escape from the daily problems, a way to have fun with the people and party, and this period is happiness.”
The De Laurentiis era has been characterised by astute recruitment – Edinson Cavani, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Jorginho, Gonzalo Higuain – profitable sales, and falling short in the title race.
It was only last summer, after another championship bid slipped away, that ultras promised to return boss Spalletti’s stolen Fiat Panda on the condition he left the club.
“Now he deserves a Ferrari, not a Panda,” laughs journalist Credendino.
Spalletti is not from Naples, but he shares that Neapolitan passion. After being sacked by Inter, he spent two years on his farm in Tuscany before taking on the Napoli job. Now he lives by the training ground working relentlessly to deliver the Scudetto.
Maradona was the face of Napoli’s previous triumph but this time unfamiliar heroes have emerged – cleverly acquired by sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli and fuelled by Spalletti’s coaching.
“Giuntoli is the man of this miracle,” says Credendino, despite some fans fretting when the club sold high-profile stars Kalidou Koulibaly, Lorenzo Insigne and Dries Mertens last year.
“Giuntoli discovered Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, he discovered Victor Osimhen, Kim Min-jae,” adds Cimmino. “Spalletti makes this talent, makes this character. He can find the right keys to get the best of all the players. [Slovak midfielder Stanislav] Lobotka now looks like Iniesta, he looks like Xavi.”
On a sold-out match day against Milan, outside the stadium that bears Maradona’s name – an amphitheatre worthy of the Greeks who founded Neapolis, the “new city” – kids sport the mask of top scorer Osimhen and Georgian flags fly for irrepressible winger Kvaratskhelia.
There are a sprinkling of Boca and Argentina jerseys too, and, if there is a likeness to Maradona in this team, it is 22-year-old Kvaratskhelia. Signed from Dinamo Batumi last summer, he’s aptly been dubbed “Kvaradona”, but Cimmino sees him like Gianluigi Lentini at Torino or Kaka during his Milan years.
“He is incredibly unpredictable in the field,” adds Credendino. “But if Maradona was a demigod, Kvaratskhelia is the Pope. He has a totally different attitude, a totally different personality.”
Kvaratskhelia plays with a rugged urgency, socks around his ankles, calves exposed. He cavorts, he conjures. But against Milan on Sunday, without 21-goal forward Osimhen – a man Spalletti calls a “dragon with two heads” – he could not stop a vacant and disjointed Napoli sliding to a jarring 4-0 defeat.
Milan were supposed to graciously pass on the champions’ baton. Instead they slapped down a reminder the upcoming Champions League quarter-final between the two – the first leg is on Wednesday – should not be taken for granted.
Neapolitans’ relationship with their club is complex. Rather than the result, the fallout was about wider issues. Scuffles broke out between different sets of ultras in Curva B over how to protest against De Laurentiis’ ticket prices and rules over which flags or banners they can bring into the ground.
“De Laurentiis has a really complicated relationship with the city because the supporters don’t like the power, and he represented the power,” explains Carignani.
“But we have to say that this victory is great for him because he is a great businessman, he put passion in the city but also his entrepreneurship view in managing the team and that has made the difference.”
In the next few weeks, supporters and the board will both celebrate Napoli’s first title in more than three decades. The fans have been asking the city’s patron saint San Gennaro for this moment, they have called on the spirit of Maradona. Residents have been saving up in preparation for the mother of all celebrations.
“We just feel this power, this emotion,” says De Iesu. “It will be a great party all around the city, all the squares will be full of people.”
“Now we are enjoying it,” adds Carignani. “It was worth the wait.”
Adapted from BBC reports
SERIE A
Pope Leo meets Italian Serie A champions Napoli

Pope Leo XIV welcomed Italy’s newly crowned Serie A champions Napoli to the Vatican on Tuesday, joking about his own soccer allegiances.
Napoli won their fourth “Scudetto” on Friday with a 2-0 home victory over Cagliari, edging out Inter Milan by one point in a nail-biting end to the season.
The team, captained by Italian international Giovanni Di Lorenzo, arrived for their papal audience a day after a triumphant open-top bus parade through central Naples.
“The press says I am an AS Roma fan, but you are welcome! This is what the press says. Not everything you read in the press is true,” the pope said, according to a transcript.
Leo, the first pope to come from the U.S., follows and practices sports, including tennis. People who know him have described him to the media as an AS Roma supporter.
Napoli chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis gave him a blue Napoli jersey signed by players, bearing the number 10 and his name in Italian, “Papa Leone XIV”.
“You are a number 10, so you are a great striker”, De Laurentiis said. Leo replied with a chuckle and a simple “thank you”.
Coach Antonio Conte, whom De Laurentiis introduced as “deeply Catholic”, knelt down and kissed the pope’s hand, before Leo told him he had seen him many times on TV.
In a short speech, the pontiff stressed the importance of team spirit and collaboration, and sport’s educational value, especially for young people.
Winning comes “at the end of a long journey, where what matters the most is not a one-time exploit or the extraordinary performance of one champion”, he said.
“The championship is won by the team, and when I say ‘team’ I mean the players, the coach with the whole squad, and the club,” he added.
Leo ended his remarks giving his blessings to players and club officials, and offering congratulations, also on behalf of his personal cook.
“She is from Naples and she says: best wishes! She would like to be here too, Mrs Rosa, (she is) a big fan”, the pope said.
-Reuters
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SERIE A
Ademola Lookman’s Atalanta secure Champions League spot with Roma win

A second-half goal by substitute Ibrahim Sulemana earned Atalanta a 2-1 home win over AS Roma in Serie A on Monday, securing Champions League qualification for Gian Piero Gasperini’s side.
Sulemana sealed the three points for Atalanta in the 76th minute, scoring with a low strike from just outside the area, after Roma midfielder Bryan Cristante cancelled out an early opener by Ademola Lookman.
Atalanta, who fell behind in the title race, sit third in the standings on 71 points and have a seven-point cushion over fourth-placed Juventus and Lazio in fifth with two games left to play.
Roma, who failed to capitalise on Lazio and Juventus dropping points in a 1-1 stalemate on Saturday, are sixth with 63 points.
Atalanta snapped the visitors’ impressive unbeaten league run of 19 games, with Claudio Ranieri’s side previously having been defeated mid-December at Como.
Things started off brightly for Atalanta as Lookman stroked in past Roma goalkeeper Mile Svilar to put them in front after nine minutes.
Charles De Ketelaere dribbled past the Roma defence to set the Nigerian up with a precise low cross inside the box and the striker controlled the ball to score inside the right post.
It was Atalanta’s 100th goal this season across all competitions.
De Ketelaere had two good chances to double the advantage but Roma midfielder Cristante levelled for the visitors instead, netting with a flicked header after the half-hour mark.
Things slowed down significantly after a lively first half until Roma were awarded a penalty after an hour of play, following a clash between Atalanta’s Mario Pasalic and Manu Kone.
The referee, however, overturned his decision after consulting VAR.
Sulemana eventually restored the lead for Atalanta in the 76th minute, scoring with a low strike from just outside the area — a goal that stood after a VAR check for a potential offside.
Roma host AC Milan next weekend before visiting mid-table Torino in their bid to qualify for Europe’s elite club competition for the first time since the 2018-19 campaign.
Atalanta travel to Genoa on Sunday before welcoming lowly Parma in their final fixture.
-Reuters
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SERIE A
After 3 years of suspension, Paul Pogba sees the light again

Paul Pogba can return to competition with the end of his 18-month doping ban on Tuesday, with the 2018 world champion hoping to leave behind three cataclysmic years also marked by injuries and a kidnapping case of which he was the victim.
The long penance of the French international (91 caps), one of the biggest stars in the world of football, is coming to an end and the midfielder will be able to draw a line under what seems like a slow descent into hell.
Suspended for four years after testing positive for non-endogenous testosterone metabolites (DHEA) at the end of the Juventus-Udinese match on August 20, 2023, Pogba saw his sanction reduced to 18 months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the CAS considering that the “ingestion” of the substance “was not intentional and resulted from taking a food supplement prescribed by a doctor in Florida.”
Based in Miami, the native of Lagny-sur-Marne, east of Paris, is now ready to bounce back, his Instagram account still very popular (62.7 million followers) multiplies photos of intensive training, with a few fashion shots, another of his passions. Sign of his return, at least in the media, while waiting to be able to resume the thread of his prestigious career.
His ultimate dream remains the 2026 World Cup, but he would first have to find a club. La Pioche (32 years old on March 15), whose contract with Juventus Turin that ran until 2026 was terminated last November, “is training 1000%, he is in good spirits, he has received many offers”, assures a member of his entourage. He is also in regular contact with the coach of the Blues Didier Deschamps, “one of his advisors for sporting decisions”, according to one of his close friends.
But who could be interested in a player whose last match was on September 3, 2023 with Juve?
During one of his rare public appearances, on AmineMaTue’s Twitch channel in January, he explained that he had received ” proposals, not very interesting stuff”, such as “going to play in Russia, but that’s not the goal “.
A contract, he admitted, ” doesn’t depend on me, but on many other things.”
– Strength of character –
David Beckham’s Inter Miami could be a solution. Pogba lives in the Florida metropolis where he bought a house, he was in the stands for the Roses’ first MLS match of the season, against New York City (2-2), on February 23, and he is fine-tuning his fitness with the fitness coach of Lionel Messi, the team’s star.
Olympique de Marseille also sounded him out, and football director Medhi Benatia played with him at Juventus. But OM did not want to take the risk of signing a player whose fitness is surrounded by too many questions.
In any case, morale seems to be at its highest, with Pogba having always maintained his legendary strength of character even in the worst of storms.
“I ‘ve had a difficult year, so I have this rage, this desire to play football and enjoy it until the end of my career,” he said on Al Jazeera channel, just before his positive test.
Also badly affected by the kidnapping case of which he was the victim in 2022, he can now also try to forget this sordid episode with the end of the trial of his attackers at the end of 2024, his brother Mathias and five of his childhood friends having been sentenced to terms of up to eight years in prison.
“I can finally turn the page on this extremely difficult period. This conclusion is an opportunity for everyone to focus on the future. Now that the judgment has been delivered, I can fully concentrate on my return to professional football ,” he wrote to AFP after the verdict.
” That he can rediscover the pleasure of playing on the pitch, that’s all I wish for him because humanly he’s really a good person ,” said Didier Deschamps in 2024.
–Le360/AFP
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