Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli; or plain Napoli as they’re more commonly known, is a professional football club from the Italian city of the same name of which the current club was formed on August 25th 1926.
Previous to this the city was represented by Naples Foot-Ball & Cricket Club which was formed in 1905 by English sailor William Poths. It was in the era when southern clubs did not compete in the Italian championship, so matches were played against visiting sailors.
The foreign members of that club broke away to form Internazionale Napoli. Both clubs played in Prima Categoria, the national championship of the day from the 1912-13 season when clubs from the south of the country were admitted for the first time.
The current club came into being as Associazione Calcio (AC) Napoli in 1926 starting out playing at Stadio Militare dell'Arenaccia and joining the top tier Divisione Nazionale for the 1927-28 campaign. Star player of the day was goal scorer Attila Sallustro.
The new Stadio Vesuvio near to the city’s central railway station was inaugurated in 1930 after being commissioned by Napoli’s first President, Giorgio Ascarelli. At the same time the top level was retitled Serie A as William Garbutt took charge of the team.
His side would go on to finish in third place in 1932-33 and 1933-34 with players such as Antonio Vojak, Arnaldo Sentimenti and Carlo Buscaglia starring, while their home was renamed Stadio Partenopeo after expansion for the 1934 World Cup.
Napoli were relegated in 1941-42 before their stadium was razed to the ground by Allied bombing in World War Two with the club moving into Stadio Arturo Collana del Vomero. The team won Campionato Centro-Sud Serie A-B in the first season back after conflict in 1945-46 to regain their Serie A position under coach Raffaele Sansone.
‘Gli Azzurri’ The Blues went back down in 1947-48 before returning as Serie B champions in 1949-50 with Eraldo Monzeglio in charge of the team. The goals of Mario Astorri and Amedeo Amadei helped the team consolidate and push up to the top six placings.
Giancarlo Vitali and Hasse Jeppson were regularly on the mark as Napoli ended in fourth in 1952-53 before Luís Vinício took up the mantle as Monzeglio was replaced by former striker Amadei in the summer of 1956.
In 1959 the club moved into the newly constructed Stadio San Paolo in the Fuorigrotta district of the city after outgrowing Stadio Arturo Collana del Vomero. The new stadium was inaugurated with a match against Juventus.
‘I Partenopei’ were relegated in 1960-61 before returning at the first attempt under coach Bruno Pesaola. Napoli also lifted their first major honour when they lifted the Coppa Italia of 1961-62 as SPAL were defeated 2-1 thanks to goals from Gianni Corelli and Pierluigi Ronzon.
However, their top flight place was lost within twelve months before the club changed title to their current mantle in the summer of 1964 and then winning promotion with a returning Pesaola in charge of the team for whom José Altafini and Cané supplied the goals for a third place finish in 1965-66.
Dino Zoff established himself in goal along with local born defender Antonio Juliano as Napoli ended as Serie A runners-up in 1967-68. Giuseppe Chiappella took over as head coach in 1969, remaining in charge until 1973 when replaced by Luis Vinicio.
Sergio Clerici’s goals helped the side to third place in 1973-74 before being assisted by Giuseppe Massa and Giorgio Braglia to finish runners-up the following season. A second Coppa Italia victory was to arrive at the club in 1975-76.
Hellas Verona were dispatched 4-0 thanks to two goals from Giuseppe Savoldi an effort from Giorgio Braglia and an own goal. The team reached the semi-final of the UEFA Cup Winners-Cup the following season before falling to eventual winners RSC Anderlecht as Pesaola was employed for a third time.
Coaches came and went with Claudio Pellegrini top scoring in 1980-81 as Napoli ended in third place with Rino Marchesi as head coach. He would later return in 1984 as the club was propelled to world attention with the signing of Diego Maradona from FC Barcelona.
The team finished in eighth place and then third before Ottavio Bianchi was brought in as coach in July 2016. The team at this point also included stars Ciro Ferrara, Bruno Giordano, Alessandro Renica, Andrea Carnevale and Salvatore Bagni.
Napoli would go on to become Italian champions for the first time in 1986-87 as the Neapolitan crowds went wild with adulation for the team but particularly Maradona whose status was raised to that of deity.
The double was completed when Atalanta were defeated 4-0 for the club to win their third Coppa Italia as Atalanta were defeated 4-0 on aggregate with Ciro Muro among the scorers in the final.
The local ultras displayed a banner outside the local cemetery saying, "E non chano se só perso" translated as “you don't know what you missed". Celebrations went on in the city for weeks afterwards.
Careca joined the club in midfield as Napoli finished Serie A runners-up in 1987-88 and again in 1988-89. Consolation came for the near miss as the team won the UEFA Cup the same season following a 5-4 aggregate win over VfB Stuttgart with Alemão among the scorers.
Napoli lifted their second Scudetto in 1989-90 under new coach Alberto Bigon with Maradona and Cereca continuing to provide the goals. However, Maradona split support when his Argentinian side defeated Italy in the 1990 World Cup semi-final at Stadio San Paolo and after he’d asked the locals to lend his team their support.
Within a year Maradona had tested positive for cocaine and left the club. Claudio Ranieri became the new coach in July 1991. His side could not push for honours despite the goals of Daniel Fonseca and Gianfranco Zola. Marcello Lippi had a season as head coach before Vujadin Boškov was the next to try his hand.
Players were sold under financial pressure before Luigi Simoni led the side to the 1996-97 Coppa final where Vicenza proved too strong over the two legs. The club went through four different head coaches in 1997-98 as they finished bottom of the table and were relegated.
Players such as Roberto Ayala, Giuseppe Taglialatela and Francesco Turrini remained at the club while André Cruz, Alain Boghossian, Fabio Pecchia, Roberto Bordin, Nicola Caccia and Alfredo Aglietti all departed.
New coach Renzo Ulivieri couldn’t take the team back up, but Walter Novellino’s side regained their Serie A status in 1999-00. However, Napoli lasted just one season in the top tier before being relegated.
The constant changes of coaches didn’t help stability but far worse was to follow as the club was found to have a debt estimated up to €70 million and were sent down to Serie C1 at the end of the 2003-04 campaign.
The club was declared bankrupt in August 2004 before being reformed as Napoli Soccer; and just missing out on promotion with more appointments in the position of head coach coming and going.
Napoli were crowned as champions of Group B of Serie C1 in 2005-06 under coach Edoardo Reja as the fans stayed loyal with a crowd of over 51,000 attending one game. Club chairman De Laurentiis restored the club name to SSC Napoli in the summer of 2006.
The team won a second successive promotion in 2006-07 to return to Serie A as Emanuele Calaiò banged in the goals. Their position at the top level was consolidated before Reja was replaced briefly by Roberto Donadoni who lasted just a few months before being succeeded by Walter Mazzarri.
The goals of Edinson Cavani took Napoli to third place and Champions League football in 2010-11 before a fourth Coppa Italia was lifted in 2011-12 when Juventus were defeated 2-0 through goals from Cavani and the prolific Marek Hamšík who would become a club legend.
A runners-up place in Serie A was achieved in 2012-13 as the midfield creativity of Goran Pandev and Lorenzo Insigne shone through for the forward talents of Hamšík and Cavani. Rafael Benítez arrived in Naples as the new head coach for the 3013-14 campaign.
His team went on to lift another Coppa in his first season as Fiorentina were undone 3-1 as Insigne scored twice and Dries Mertens once. The league ended with a third place finish. Gonzalo Higuaín and José Callejón were among the goals the following season as Napoli finished fifth.
Maurizio Sarri replaced Benitez in May 2015 before taking his team to runners-up in Serie A before they went out in the first knock out stage in the Champions League in 2015-16. Napoli went on to claim third place in the domestic league.
Sarri’s side finished as runners-up in Serie A once again in 2017-18 before the coach headed to Juventus. Carlo Ancelotti was in charge in 2018-19 as Napoli dropped down to the Europa League where they reached the last eight before losing to Arsenal.
Ancelotti took the team to second spot once again in Serie A; again, being denied the Scudetto by the all-conquering Juventus side. Arkadiusz Milik have fans cheer at San Paolo with his goals while Kalidou Koulibaly was outstanding in defence. Hamšík said goodbye in February 2019 after amassing over 500 first team appearances.
Gennaro Gattuso was appointed as head coach for the 2019-20 season. His side reached the Round of 16 in the Champions League while being placed in sixth place in the league when the season was halted owing to the COVID-19 outbreak.
SSC Napoli will play in Serie A in the 2019-20 season.
My visit
England 3 Cameroon 2 after extra time (Sunday 1st July 1990) World Cup Quarter Final (att: 55,205)
I had travelled to Italy for the World Cup better known as Italia 90 with Nick, my youngest brother on an Interail ticket, staying on camp sites as we went. We arrived into Naples on the Wednesday before the game and quickly came to the conclusion we didn’t want to stay in the city.
It had a terrible reputation for crime and violence with some elder fans still having nightmares about their experiences there during the European Championships of 1980. England fans would be bound to be high on the menu once again. We were with Darren, who we met in Rimini for the previous game. Billy and Brian were still on their way.
It was agreed that Sorrento would be a good bet to stay, and we were not to be disappointed. We found a camp site on the south of the resort and pitched our tent. We had to pay for a large tent space as Darren said he was staying with us, as he was basically stopping with whoever he could, and the others were still in transit.
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| Quality time in Capril |
I was caught unawares and detained. This was not massively good news, especially bearing in mind the way the authorities were treating England fans in general and the fact that they’d deported a plane load from Rimini a few days earlier regardless of guilt. The police arrived and decided they would drive me around the town and various bars to see if I could point out the guilty person.
Our group were drinking in a bar where most England fans were congregated. I was marched in for an ad hoc identity parade. I shrugged my shoulders but the police weren’t convinced. They’d probably seen my not so indiscreet wink to my mates. I was taken away and after questioning and me pleading my innocence I was kicked out of the station door with the instruction, “F**k off. England that way”.
I managed to get back to the camp site despite many locals looking for English meat. I used a line I’d prepared for such eventualities, which was to bring much mirth to everyone who heard the tale afterwards. I smiled and said “Forza Italia”.
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| The lads all line up with a Reading fan who insisted in joining in! |
The rest of our spare time was spent with new mates, John the Portsmouth fan and Keith a Millwall supporter as well as many others we met along the way. We had an afternoon out on the stunning Isola di Capri having a lovely walk around the island as well as the day out before the match at Pompei looking at the restored city while the menacing Vesuvius towered over us.
Matchday eventually arrived. It was a long old day as the bars had stopped serving alcohol thirty six years earlier. We had travelled up to the Stadio San Paolo a few days previously to collect the tickets, which was an adventure in itself.
We were mob handed as there were other fans of similar intentions based in Sorrento so we felt relatively safe, despite some Chelsea fans enjoying praying on my nerves, which had meant me taking detours all over Sorrento to avoid detection after my earlier escapade. I had the last laugh by reminding them of how Scarborough had knocked them out of the League Cup that season.
The trains into Naples were packed full, with plenty of locals also travelling to the game. We were escorted to the Metro, and in no time we had arrived at Mostra station. Once again we were very early, but as there was very little to do outside, we went into the stadium.
The stadium had a running track around it. We were downstairs behind the goal. There was two tiers of fading red seats around the perfect bowl. A roof had been constructed in readiness for the tournament.
The local authorities had placed a banner on the balcony between the tiers proclaiming “Naples Welcomes All England Supporters”. Yeah right! As I was wandering around I bumped into some lads from Whitby, one of whom I drank with on occasions in Scarborough.
England came out of the traps flying and it was no surprise when David Platt put us one ahead. I think that looking back many of us were very complacent about the game. The talk was all about the upcoming German game in Turin, and how we’d get tickets and details such as where we’d stay and would the Juventus fans be looking for revenge?
Maybe the players were having the same thoughts as well, because after half time Cameroon came out and played us off the park. Within fifteen minutes they’d gone ahead and could have made it 3-1, thanks in many ways to the mercurial substitute Roger Milla. I still didn’t get hugely concerned. After all, how could an African team beat England?
With about fifteen minutes to go, the consistent fouling from Cameroon let them down as Gary Lineker was brought down in the box. He put the penalty away into the top corner in front of us. All of a sudden England were back and Cameroon were hanging on. The game went to extra time at which point Paul Gascoigne played a majestic pass to send Lineker clean through.
The keeper hauled him down, only to receive a yellow card as the law decried at the time. Once again Lineker stepped up and sent the ball straight up the middle into the back of the net.
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| Gary Lineker about to equalise from the spot. |
Match highlights are available here:
We were through. We were going crazy. “We’re on the March, we’re Bobby’s Army” was been sang as the players celebrated as the Cameroonians did a deserved lap of honour. Once again we were kept back before we were herded to the Metro and then the train to Sorrento. People were joyous but tired when we got back as it was well gone midnight.
The reporters and film crews were waiting so we gave them plenty of atmosphere, much to the annoyance of the local police. The next day we had lunch and could actually celebrate with a beer before travelling into Naples for the epic train journey to Turin, with a change in Rome.
A hilarious memory was of a couple of hundred England fans walking through the corridors of Naples Garibaldi Station singing our heads off as local parents grabbed their kids (lifting them off their feet) and belongings, as they ran for cover, despite the last thing anyone wanting was trouble.
The train journey was indeed epic, as we stopped as part of the train caught fire in the middle of nowhere. It must have looked a strange sight to see a load of England fans stood at the side of the tracks offering their technical advice while drinking beer. Our group, which was rapidly resembling a scene from “Auf Wiedersehn, Pet” commandeered a compartment to ourselves on both trains.
I’m not sure that we were entitled to one, but the guard soon shut the door again after a sharp intake of breath. Happy days! After we had departed Naples, the city was to host the semi-final the following Tuesday between the hosts Italy, and Argentina. Diego Maradona was still a Napoli player at the time.
He suggested that Neopolitans should turn their back on Italy and support his team. He said “I don't like the fact that now everybody is asking Neapolitans to be Italian and to support their national team. Naples has always been marginalised by the rest of Italy. It is a city that suffers the most unfair racism”.
The locals at the game responded with a banner saying "Maradona, Naples loves you, but Italy is our homeland”. It was the only stadium throughout the tournament where the Argentine national anthem wasn’t jeered. Argentina won on penalties and Maradona bowed to his fans at the end of the match.
After the World Cup Final the Italian Football Federation forced Maradona to take a doping test, which he failed testing positive for cocaine. Napoli and Maradona both claimed it was a revenge plot for events at the tournament. Maradona was banned for 15 months and would never play for Napoli again.
To see the messiah at work and to see the joy he brought to the city, click here:
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