Читать книгу Calcio: A History of Italian Football - John Foot - Страница 74

In 1990–91, with Maradona frequently injured, late and overweight, the team slumped to eighth. In 1991–2, with Maradona gone for good, Zola began to blossom, scoring twelve times as Napoli finished fourth under Claudio Ranieri, who was, however, sacked after just nine games of the following season. The team then oscillated between mid-table and relegation until the disastrous 1997–8 season, when they finished last. Although they were promoted in 2000, they were soon relegated again, and only just avoided the shame of Serie C in 2002–2003, before bankruptcy led to demotion in 2004.

Napoli’s fans remain amongst the most obsessive (and numerous) in Italy, but their team has gone into financial and on-the-pitch free-fall since the late 1990s. Still, for key matches, the stadium is often a sell-out and local TV stations devote hours and hours of coverage to their local team. The city can still rally around when times are hard. In 2003 some 70,000 turned out for a Serie B relegation battle and the same number attended a Serie C playoff in 2005. Nonetheless, frustration with the side’s recent poor showing has often descended into violence. Players have been physically attacked or threatened on numerous occasions in recent times, most seriously when Napoli defender Francesco Baldini was beaten with iron bars after being followed home by masked fans on motorbikes in November 2002. In February 2004 midfielder Renato Olive was surrounded by five young men who threatened him with a knife and told him that ‘If you don’t win against Messina, we’ll come and look for you again’. After serious flooding damaged the crumbling and dangerous San Paolo in September 2001, opening up huge holes in the concrete, Napoli were forced to play their home games in smaller stadiums all over the south.

Diego, meanwhile, often appears on Italian TV these days, where he is something of a figure of fun: fat, tattooed, a friend of Fidel Castro. A TV comic does quite a good impression of him, but the real thing is much more tragic. Napoli fans always ask him when he is coming back, but only a madman, and Maradona is not mad, would have taken on Napoli at that point in their history. Just when the situation seemed hopeless, salvation arrived for the club in the form of the cinema magnate Aurelio De Laurentis, who sorted out the disastrous financial situation of the team and managed to make them serious competitors for promotion back to the top division. In June 2007 after a dramatic last game in Genoa, Napoli returned to Serie A. Predictably, this news was followed by street parties and celebrations, and not just in Naples.