In the anniversary year of the footballer’s debut at Napoli football team, let’s discover the history of the most famous murals dedicated to Maradona, which have now become one of the city’s main attractions.
Few things tell the unique soul of the Neapolitans like the incredible stories of devotion linked to its “saints”, from San Gennaro, whose treasure is the only “royal one” owned by a people, to Diego Armando Maradona.
Faith, genius, devotion, religiosity, spectacularity, are characteristics that unite Naples and the great Argentine footballer, which is why their love story seems truly destined to remain eternal.
I scored with my head and with the hand of God.
(Diego Armando Maradona)
Maradona debuted to the Napoli stadium on July 5, 1984 and played there for seven unforgettable years in which he won a lot, including 2 championships, in 1987 and 1990, creating an indissoluble bond with the fans and the entire city.
Today, 30 years later, his cult and the love of the Neapolitans have remained unchanged and to testify to this are the dozens of street art works scattered throughout the city that celebrate him as a divinity.
The most famous is the mural created in the heart of the Quartieri Spagnoli by Mario Filardi in 1990, who unfortunately passed away prematurely in 2010, in a building overlooking a space once used as a parking and which is now called Largo Maradona in homage to the Pibe de Oro.
A place that has taken on a magical aura over the years, enriched by a sort of altar, dedicated to the player, where fans and tourists come and go to take a photo, and many stands selling memorabilia and gadgets.
The work and in particular the face of Maradona, “disappeared” because of the window that was built “by surprise” above the mural at the end of the 90s, were restored in 2016 by Salvatore Iodice in a conservative manner with the promise of the current owner of the house, obviously a fan of Maradona, not to open it again so as not to ruin the player’s face.
In 2017, the Argentine artist Francisco Bosoletti, who was staying at Quartieri Spagnoli, was asked to further “embellish” Maradona’s face and his is also the wonderful mural “Iside Velata” located in a nearby building that pays homage to the goddess of Wisdom.
Another neighborhood where you can see many murals dedicated to Maradona is Rione Sanità, today one of the most culturally vibrant in Naples, including the beautiful one by the writer Raffo Art painted in 2020 in the year of the footballer’s death.
In addition to the murals, there are two other places where the sacredness of Maradona reaches us with all its force. It is the very popular Via San Gregorio Armeno, also known as the “Via dei Presepi”, full of ateliers and workshops that hand-craft the famous nativity scene figurines, among which many versions of the Argentine footballer peep out, even dressed as Santa Claus.
Lastly, you cannot miss a break in the historic pizzeria Da Michele in Via Cesare Sersale which has dedicated a table to Maradona, where it seems he used to sit, complete with a plaque and commemorative newspaper articles hanging on the wall.
On the other hand, “in Naples everything is poetry”, even or especially in football, and if Maradona wanted “to become the idol of the poor kids of Naples, because they are like I was in Buenos Aires”, what you breathe in front of his mural in Quartieri Spagnoli is pure magic.
The Secret
The 1990 mural was very different from today’s one, with a more “cartoonish” face, and it was not painted above any window. The latter, in fact, appeared unexpectedly on the wall in 1998.
