38 years ago today, Diego Armando Maradona joined Napoli
On 5 July 1984, the World Cup winner with Argentina was formally introduced to fans of the Serie A side and around 80,000 ‘tifosi’ showed up at San Paolo stadium.
The story of Diego Armando Maradona is not complete without including his achievements in Serie A with Napoli. On 5 July 1984, the World Cup winner with Argentina was formally introduced at Estadio San Paolo and around 80,000 thousand fans witnessed the start of a love story.
38 years ago Napoli paid $10.5 million to FC Barcelona to sign Diego Armando Maradona and the rest is history. The former Argentine international led the club to their only two Serie A trophies and the UEFA Cup. When Maradona passed away Napoli decided to rename its home ground to Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in 2020.
Maradona’s legacy with Napoli
The former Argentine international won a total of five titles during seven seasons with the Italian side between 1984 to 1991. Maradona reached the peak of his career with Napoli and inherited the captaincy shortly after his arrival at the club. The former Argentina international helped Napoli win their first ever Serie A trophy in the 1986/87 season and Neapolitans held mock funerals for Juventus and Milan, burning coffins as a new king was born.
At that time the tensions were high between the north and the south of Italy because of issues such as economic differences between the two regions. When Maradona arrived in Italy Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan and Roma were dominating the league and no team in the south of the Peninsula could make a run to fight for the championship.
Maradona changed the mentality of the Neapolitans and shaped the history of the club. During his time with Napoli he was playing at such a high level that in 1986 he led Argentina to win the World Cup at Estadio Azteca and that made his legacy even greater and many believe that Maradona is the best player of all time.