Napoli 2023 Serie A Win – A Fan’s Perspective

In May of 2023 Napoli lifted their first Serie A title since the 1989/90 season. A generation of fans brought up on tales of Diego Maradona witnessed their team become champions for the first time since the Argentinian led the team to glory 33-years earlier. I wanted to know how that felt so I spoke with lifelong Napoli fan Michele Borrelli.

“I was born in 1992 after the Maradona era and it was the beginning of a downfall. I’d say Napoli were almost irrelevant for most of my childhood. My earliest memory is probably from the early 2000s when Napoli won Serie B. I grew up with a lot of stories from my relatives about how great Napoli were but that never matched up with what I was seeing.”

Napoli pride

It is probably an understatement to say that football is an important part of life in Naples. Neapolitans are fiercely proud of their city. As a one-team town, that pride is often channelled through the football team. Michele has lived there all his life and his experience is common amongst those in Naples.

“I have been a supporter all my life. I was born and bred here and I am lucky that all my family are Napoli fans. My grandfather was a Napoli fan, and my father is and always has been a fan too. He was a season ticket holder in the Maradona era, so he is the one who has brought me on to this path. It wasn’t just him. I have been lucky enough to always be surrounded by Napoli fans. It has always been very much a social thing. I grew up with friends and family who support the team. That isn’t unusual here as it is a one-team city.

Naples is a city that is proud of its football team but it’s not just about football. It just gets reflected in football as that is the most popular sport. It is very much part of the cultural identity of being from Napoli. One of the main aspects of being Neapolitan is supporting the football team. We have our own language in Naples, our own identity and as there is only one club, we all have the football team.”

Something I couldn’t imagine

To get a feeling for the scale of the achievement that winning Serie A presents, I wanted to know if seeing his team lift the trophy was something Michele expected to see at some point.

“Absolutely not. Not in a hundred years. I was born around two years after the peak of Napoli’s history. They won their first Serie A titles and the UEFA Cup and then they were irrelevant again. I saw nothing of that great time. When I started following football and seeing Milan and Juventus win the league, Napoli were not even in the same division.

When I heard stories of the past glories it was like hearing stories of ancient Rome, it was something I couldn’t imagine. The team I started watching in Serie B is the team I relate to. So, when you ask if I could imagine winning Serie A, I would say never. It was one of my long-term life goals to see Napoli win the league. Like buying a house or marrying a nice girl.”

I actually cried

At this point I must add that despite being as Neapolitan as they come, Michele conducted our whole conversation in perfect English. My poor grasp of Italian allowed me to introduce myself although, I’m sure Michele was just being polite when he said I used the correct Italian. We started to talk about the league winning campaign as Michele described when he first realised that one of his dreams may be about to come true.

“It is strange to look back on that season as it’s still quite fresh. Nobody expected it to happen apart from in our dreams. It would be like a small team slaying a giant. We ran Juventus close previously and fell away. If you had asked how we thought it might be won then we would have said it will go right to the last game. The reality was that we knew we were going to win the league weeks before it ended.

We had such a big advantage. The game I realised it was probably going to happen was in November of 2022. Napoli had won about ten games in a row before the break for the World Cup. The game before the break was against Udinese. It was a very tense game and there was still a long way to go but at the end of that game I actually cried. It was the first time I really believed we could win it. If you ask most Napoli fans, they probably wouldn’t say that game. I do remember a few others with tears that day though.”

Flags everywhere

It isn’t just what happens on the pitch that invokes memories of particular matches. When a city has a football team doing well, the enthusiasm is contagious. When that city is Naples, the atmosphere goes beyond fever pitch.

“Another match that stands out was against Salernitana when if we won, we would officially win the league. We didn’t win the game so it wasn’t made official that day but I remember it so well for my journey to the ground. I decided to go through Napoli on my scooter on my way to the game so I could soak up the atmosphere. There were flags everywhere, even the American embassy had blue and white banners outside.”

Like New Year’s eve

“Napoli fans don’t usually wear a lot of club colours. Flags are normally only waved in the Ultra section. When I got to the stadium, I saw everyone in blue and everyone had a flag. I thought that this must be what it was like the last time we won it. It was strange as we knew we were winning the league months before it was mathematically confirmed. We never won it until May but even in March and April, we knew it was going to happen.

If you go on Google street view you will see as they took the images that April. You can see the flags were already out to celebrate. It had been slowly building up since about February, every day you would see another flag pop up in a window. There were celebrations before and after the Salernitana game, even though it wasn’t confirmed then. The next game was away to Udinese so the club opened the stadium and showed the match on big screens. The whole stadium was full and we watched the game in our own stadium. There were massive celebrations in the stadium and they went on all night. It was like New Years Eve in the city centre.”

Celebrating in the city

With the vital point coming away from home, I wondered if Michele wished he had gone to Udine to be there in person. As it happened, the game being away from Naples provided a great opportunity for the city to celebrate.

“It was something that I debated extensively with friends and family. I lived in the Udine area for two years so it would have been an easy away game to get to for me, although it is far away. It was tough to decide if I wanted to be at the game or be in the city when we won the league. I decided I wanted to experience it in the stadium where we had been watching games all season with my friends and family. We could then celebrate in the city after the game which is something I had always dreamed of.”

Spalletti departs

In the aftermath of the title victory, Napoli’s manager Luciano Spalletti decided to leave the club on the highest of highs. Despite having mixed feeling on his departure, Michele was appreciative for what the manager given him and his fellow supporters before leaving.

“Spalletti leaving was complicated because he still had one year left of his contract. He asked to be let out the contract early as he was tired after the season. On a human level I understood where he came from. It took a lot to elevate the team to become best in the country. We felt at peace with the world after winning the title so nothing would really disappoint us.

Some my friends said they didn’t know what to do now that they had seen something they wanted their whole life. It’s hard to be mad at Spalletti as he will be loved forever for what he has done. He even got a tattoo on his arm of the Napoli crest which shows we will be with him forever.”

You can follow Michele’s views on his beloved Napoli on ‘In the Shadow of Vesuvio’ podcast: