Diego Maradona made Napoli believe, Aurelio De Laurentiis rebuilt them and Luciano Spalletti let them play
CBSN
Napoli won their third Serie A title in the history of the club on Thursday, and it was a long time coming
If you wonder why Napoli's Serie A title celebrations are different from the others we witness every year in Italy, you need to understand the essence of this city and these fans. Naples is a special place. It's a city that just embodies the common happiness of its citizens, their generosity and warmth, but at the same time is full of contradictions. It's a city that was built on the slopes of a volcano, Mount Vesuvius, that might erupt at any time, but if you look on the other side you see the beauty of the Mediterranean sea that just fills hearts with peace and comfort. "Naples is a thousand colorsNaples is a thousand fearsNaples is a bitter sunNaples is the smell of the seaNaples is a dirty cardand nobody cares"
The Neapolitans feel different from any other Italian city. Their connection with the culture, the music and especially the soccer club is visceral. Naples was, and is still considered, the capital of the south, as it actually was the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from 1817 to 1861, until Italy was unified. That was a defining year of the recent history of the city, and from that moment on, the Neapolitans felt to be undermined by the North of the country and the rivalry between North and South grew exponentially.
The same rivalry turned into soccer as well. Napoli were never considered a top team and never really challenged the top Italian clubs for the title. Italian soccer has been historically dominated by the top three giants: Juventus, Inter and AC Milan. Napoli, AS Roma, Lazio and few others occasionally challenged them but failed to create a winning legacy as the big three did. This is why Napoli always were considered as underdogs until the 1980's something unexpected changed the history of the club.