Naples won Thursday, five days from the end, its third Italian championship title, more than 30 years after the first two of the time Diego Maradona (1987, 1990), thanks to a point offered by Victor Osimhen to Udine (1-1). The party, delayed on Sunday by a late goal from Salernitana (1-1), started even before the final whistle at the foot of Vesuvius, in the streets of the city center as well as on the stands of the Neapolitan stadium now bearing the name of the Argentine idol where more than 50,000 tifosi had gathered to follow the match on a giant screen.
The celebrations of this deserved scudetto, as Naples dominated Serie A, promise to be boiling to accompany the return to the South of a title monopolized for 22 years by the three giants of the North, Juventus Turin, AC Milan and Inter Milan. In Udine, there were also thousands of Neapolitans who made the trip not to miss this historic match, which put an end to a 33-year wait.
Osimhen at the right time
A point is precisely what was needed to mathematically secure the crown five days before the end of the season, a record performance that only four teams had achieved so far: Juventus in 2019, Inter Milan in 2007, Fiorentina in 1956 and Torino in 1948. It was not easy for this Napoli, which had been much less brilliant for weeks, worn down at the end of a battered season. Luciano Spalletti’s team was quickly surprised by a disciplined Udinese and ahead of the score thanks to a superb shot in the skylight from the Slovenian Sandi Lovric (13th).
Naples then tried to push, but with less speed and less precision in their game. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia could perhaps have obtained a penalty (21st) and Osimhen posed the danger with a header (24th, 32nd). It was not until the recovery that the release did not arrive, as often thanks to Osimhen, at the right time to take back a ball returned by the opposing defense on a corner (52nd). The Nigerian, top scorer in Serie A, will not forget the 22nd goal of his immense season, celebrated as usual by removing his protective mask to go and pick up the ovation from delirious Neapolitan supporters.
Naples, which could even have won without a big save from Marco Slivestri in front of Piotr Zielinski (70th), can no longer be taken over by Lazio, second at sixteen points. Luciano Spalletti becomes, at 64, the oldest coach to be crowned Italian champion, beyond the 61 years of Maurizio Sarri when he won the scudetto with Juventus Turin in 2020.
“A liberation”
Spalletti’s strength is to have created an enthusiastic team, praised for their attacking play, where everyone has found their place, including substitutes who scored decisive goals for the title like Giovanni Simeone or Giacomo Raspadori, beyond undoubted stars of the season, Osimhen and Kvaratskhelia. This almost perfect season, which also saw Naples reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the first time, was not necessarily expected after the many departures last summer, mainly to rebalance the accounts: Lorenzo Insigne, Kalidou Koulibaly, Dries Mertens or Fabian Ruiz.
This success is also that of owner Aurelio De Laurentiis, 73, a Roman cinema producer who in 2004 took over a bankrupt club and relegated to the third division. He brought him back first to Serie A and then permanently to the top of the calcio thanks to rigorous financial management, even if this also still earned him the mistrust of some of the ultras opposed to a policy deemed too mercantile. But Naples owes him a joy the likes of which they have not known for 33 years and which will undoubtedly still be enormous on Sunday at the Maradona stadium for the return of the heroes against Fiorentina.
“It’s a liberation, we’ve been waiting for too long. (…) I heard about it from my parents (the first two titles) and today I saw it! The city is going to party for all summer for sure”, exclaimed Antonio De Roma, 20, student, immersed in the festivities well and truly launched in Naples.