In the shadow of Vesuvius, a city erupts as Napoli win the title

The city of Naples erupted in a night of frenetic and explosive celebrations Thursday night after Napoli SC won its first national football championship in 33 years playing 850 kilometres from home in the northern city of Udine.

More than 10,000 Neapolitans took the nation’s already congested autostrade to see the game while the Diego Maradona Stadium in Naples was sold out in minutes without the match even being played at home – instead, fans watched on big screens.

Naples has been on the brink of winning the coveted scudetto for weeks after earning a commanding lead over its nearest rival, Lazio but securing the final few points required to win was agony. Udinese took a shock lead early in the game and it was only in the second half when Napoli’s star striker, Victor Osimhen slotted in an equaliser that fans began to relax.

The city has been festooned in blue and white streamers and impromptu shrines to Diego Maradona, the legendary Argentinian who led the squad to victory nearly two generations ago.

This time around however, Napoli’s triumph is the result of a team: a brilliant, eclectic and multicultural mix of relative unknowns including the Nigerian forward, Victor Osimhen, Serie A’s top scorer who plays wearing a Batman-style eye mask and the Georgian winger, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, whose thrilling play has seen him compared to Maradona and earned him the nickname ‘Kvaradona’.

Together, they have propelled Napoli to become one of Europe’s top teams, known for their own style of ferocious, attacking style football – and all are now become targets of multimillion euro acquisition raids.

For Napoli fans the Serie A season has been exercise in delayed gratification, the subject of endless jokes and double entendres which one commercial radio announcer described as being akin to the long wait to visit a distant lover – only to be told it was “her time of the month”.

The joy of Osimhen’s equaliser turned into another nervous wait of more than half an hour as the team were denied several goals to secure the game, instead they had to watch the clock as it inched slowly toward full time with an additional fretful three minutes of extra time.

Naples has always been known for legendary New Year’s Eve fireworks, let off haphazardly from every balcony, terrace, rooftop and alleyway and often resulting in at least one death and many injuries.

On Thursday night, Vesuvius was silent while the city in its shadow erupted into an aerial waterfall of sparks and explosions which lasted several hours, pierced occasionally by the howl of frightened dogs.

Napoli fans – like Neapolitans themselves – have endured decades of insults and a form of racism, treated with disdain by the wealthy, powerful clubs trained in the north of Italy and greeted by banners declaring them ‘terroni’ or ‘arabi’ (peasants and arabs) and even ‘Benevenuti in Italia’ – welcome to Italy at away games.

For Napoli club’s owner, the film producer Aurelio De Laurentiis, their triumph has also been a monumental exercise in patience after buying what was ultimately a depressed, downtrodden – and bankrupt – club 19 years ago and managing to propel it slowly to the top.

Just before his club’s long-awaited win, De Laurentiis, described their road to triumph as a form of redemption: “Such a prestigious victory after 33 years will be a pride for the entire city, a form of vengeance for all those who have felt discriminated against or disadvantaged. This redemption, however, will have to bring unity within the country itself: the south and the north will no longer have to be considered distinct factions”.