Don't tell the Neapolitans that Maradona there is no more. Don't you dare say that TV stations all over the world aren't kidding. They call you crazy. It is as if you were telling him that Vesuvius is no longer there. The symbols survive everything, let alone if it's a man in flesh and blood represented the soul of a people. There is no grandfather, father or son who, speaking of Naples after a while, does not remember that, yes, Naples is everything and its opposite, but the greatest footballer of all time played here. A boy born and raised in poor neighborhoods, far away, but that fate had directed to that city for centuries torn between bourgeoisie and plebs. A fate - to say it today - natural, because wherever he went after Naples, Maradona was never the same.
He arrived in the modern era, but his dribbles, his acrobatics, like a disheveled footballer, have brought together, on the same side, both the bourgeois and the poor. The former alongside the latter to raise money by buying thousands of season tickets for the Napoli Football Club to finally bring "el pibe" to Italy. The bourgeois of the uptowns, of the professions, of the mega yachts, on the stands next to those of the Spanish quarters, of the degraded and penniless suburbs, eager for redemption. An economical, fierce match in the sporting dispute between Spain, Italy and the big clubs to grab a talented but expensive young man.
The Neapolitans didn't know that in business there is no room for things of the heart. They learned that summer of 1984 and by landing Diego at the San Paolo stadium they changed an ancient business rule. Maradona on the football field did not disappoint. “The phenomenon” in world football, it was the icon of the city, tormented - outside the stadium - by post-earthquake reconstruction, scandals, social unrest, crime. Intelligent, certainly a lover of life, Maradona held the city in his grip. He conquered her like a king, without bloodshed. Far from it: putting new blood in the veins, as a joke from a film by Luciano De Crescenzo states. He quickly sensed that everything would be forgiven due to his skill, to a magical destiny that by now linked his name to San Gennaro and Vesuvius. He took advantage of it until the unexpected end. There shouldn't have been a close relationship between him and Naples, as it was, due to tax issues, unlawful acquaintances, discussed friendships, ostentation of excesses.
His escape was a sad one, when everyone thought of redeeming him in their own way, without making him do too many penance or renunciations. Diego has bewitched a people who in its long history have loved and abandoned his heroes. He was rarely abandoned, but he was granted the privilege of doing so without hard feelings. On the contrary, passing that name from father to son as a timeless symbol of the city. Vesuvius is still in place, Maradona is not.
