Move over St. Paul: Napoli stadium to be named for Maradona

The mayor of Naples began a proper course of to rename the San Paolo stadium for Diego Maradona on Thursday. The transfer comes with the town in mourning for the soccer nice, who died Wednesday of a coronary heart assault at age 60, two weeks after being launched from a hospital in Buenos Aires following mind surgical procedure.

“We are already putting it together this morning, taking the first steps to dedicate Naples’ stadium to Maradona,” Luigi De Magistris mentioned. “It’s a process but it will be a quick process, because when there is such a strong desire there’s nothing that will hold us up.

“We’re hoping to make it coincide with the resumption of games with fans,” the mayor added.

The metropolis operates the San Paolo stadium, the place Maradona led Napoli to its solely two Serie A titles in 1987 and 1990.

Built after World War II, the stadium was named for St. Paul based on the legend that the apostle docked within the surrounding Fuorigrotta space when he reached current-day Italy.

“I think it’s fair to name San Paolo after you, to have you still with us as a witness to the sublime path that this squad has undertaken,” Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis mentioned in an open letter to Maradona. “Yours were unforgettable years in Neapolitans’ memories. A symbol of a renewal and a desired resurrection.”

Napoli performs Croatian aspect Rijeka on Thursday within the Europa League in a match that will probably be empty of followers as a result of coronavirus pandemic.

However, followers have been already outdoors the stadium late Wednesday and into Thursday morning waving banners, singing songs and lighting flares in Maradona’s honor — regardless that gatherings are technically banned within the metropolis, which is positioned in a coronavirus “red zone.”

“Maradona is like a father, like a brother, a family member for us,” mentioned one fan outdoors the stadium, Raffaele Cuomo. “Unfortunately it’s like someone from the family died, and it’s like a part of Naples has died.”

Added Anna Carpi, one other Naples resident: “It broke my heart. … But Diego will always be with us, in our heart.”

When Maradona joined Napoli in 1984, the southern membership had received just about nothing and was far eliminated each geographically and socio-economically from the nation’s soccer capitals of Milan and Turin.

“It sparked the revival of a people,” De Magistris mentioned. “He loved Naples and so he wanted to — via soccer — make the world aware of a city full of humanity, affection, energy and fantasy.

“Even today I see young kids who didn’t (see him play), like my kids, who still have Maradona in their minds and in their hearts.”

Il Mattino, Naples’ main newspaper, had a front-page headline Thursday that mentioned merely, “Grazie” — “Thank You.”

The Gazzetta dello Sport, the nation’s main sports activities newspaper, devoted its first 23 pages to Maradona.

Ottavio Bianchi, who coached Maradona and Napoli to their first Italian league title in 1987, lamented that he didn’t do sufficient to cease Maradona’s cocaine habit.

“Diego was great at doing simple things,” Bianchi advised RAI state radio. “He made himself very available to kids and his teammates. But I regret that I in no way prevented the path that his life took.

“When we were alone I tried to scold him and he listened to me with his eyes facing downward. I remember that I told him that he was putting his life at risk. He looked at me and told me that he wanted to live his life with the gas pedal pushed completely down — to the maximum.

“It upsets me that he has gone like this,” Bianchi added. “I always hoped that he would be able to dribble by one final obstacle.”