Читать книгу Calcio: A History of Italian Football - John Foot - Страница 71

The Napoli team of the 1980s was not just about Maradona, but it was Maradona-dependent. Built on a solid defensive foundation, with Ciro Ferrara at centre-back, the team could also depend on the tireless running of Fernando De Napoli and Salvatore Bagni in midfield and on excellent strikers such as Andrea Carnevale, Bruno Giordano and the Brazilian Careca. This whole unruly bunch was kept in check by managers Ottavio Bianchi (for the first championship) and Alberto Bigon for the second.

Maradona and the team took time to settle in. In his first season Diego scored fourteen goals and the team finished eighth, in his second year he scored eleven times and Napoli ended up third. From 1987 to 1990, however, Maradona played sublime football, scoring 50 goals in four seasons. Statistics tell us little about little Diego. Maradona’s genius can only really be understood through images – his goals were, like those of Roberto Baggio, rarely dull or ugly – chips from outside the box, perfect free-kicks, mazy dribbles, goals whilst lying on the ground. Maradona was also able to provide numerous passes for others, and he never gave up, even when defenders took lumps out of his stocky legs. The 1990 scudetto team also saw the emergence of a sparkling young talent, who had been plucked from obscurity in Sardinia. His first nickname was MaraZola, but Gianfranco Zola, who played eighteen games that year, would soon be famous in his own right.