​​Luciano Spalletti has taken Napoli to the promised land, breaking out from the chains of their dominant northern rivals to allow the south of Italy to sing once more.

The Partenopei have been an electric force in Serie A this season and are deserved winners of the Scudetto, their first since the days of Diego Maradona. Considering where the team were a year ago, this is an unbelievable and sensational achievement, one that’ll never be forgotten in the streets and homes of the Campania capital.

The agony of waiting

When Spalletti took over as Napoli coach back in July 2021, fans had muted expectations. Things had taken a step back following the departure of Maurizio Sarri in 2018, with both Carlo Ancelotti and Gennaro Gattuso failing to replicate the former banker’s magic in the dugout, even if a Coppa Italia was secured in this time.

Sarri’s departure also allowed the teams in the north to dictate proceedings once again in Serie A. Whilst the Partenopei did fail to break Juventus’ decade of dominance, they were on the cusp on several occasions. But their step back under Ancelotti and Gattuso allowed Inter and Milan to return to the fray.

Juventus secured their most recent Scudetto in the 2019-20 season before finally starting their decline, allowing Inter to win the following campaign and Milan the year after. By this point, it had been over 20 years since a team that wasn’t from the north won a Scudetto, with the last to achieve this feat being Roma in the 2000-01 season.

For Napoli, this wait was even longer. 

Sarri’s so-close-yet-so-far attempt meant their wait for a Serie A title would continue. It’s fair to say that Spalletti was not tipped to be the one that would end the heartache. 

Spalletti’s entrance and changing tides

In his first season in Campania, the veteran Italian coach guided the team to a third-place finish in Serie A, seven points behind champions Milan. In the cups, Napoli were eliminated in the Coppa Italia Round of 16 by Fiorentina and fell to Barcelona in the Europa League knockout play-offs. There would be nothing to show for Spalletti’s maiden campaign.

When a number of their talismanic figures – like Lorenzo Insigne and Kalidou Koulibaly, as well as club-record goalscorer Dries Mertens – left at the end of this season, concern was high amongst supporters. Many believed even a top-four finish would be unlikely, and that a complete reset of expectations was in order. 

The arrival of unknown entities like Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Kim Min-Jae did little to calm the waters. Little did the fans in the Campania capital know, however, that Spalletti was about to take them and Napoli to dreamland, ending a 33-year wait to bring glory back to Italy’s most populous city. In a nation with a clear north-south divide, Neapolitans have always felt different than their compatriots from Lombardy or Piedmont, being the disrespected younger brother. But this season, everything changed.

It started with a bang. Spalletti’s Napoli scored nine goals in their opening two games against Hellas Verona and Monza, and new signings like Kvaratskhelia and Kim immediately impressed, giving fans the glimmer of hope that maybe things would be different. Back-to-back draws against Fiorentina and Lecce did temper expectations, but this would soon change.

The latter of those two draws, with Lecce on 31st August, was the last league game of 2022 that the team did not win. They went on a 10-game winning streak in the run-up to the World Cup, one that took them to the top of the Serie A table, eight points ahead of the defending champions. On the European front, the Partenopei were equally as electric, winning five of their six Champions League group stage games, beating Liverpool, Ajax and Rangers to finish top of Group A. 

By the time the Qatar World Cup kicked off, fans in Naples had a fire in their stomachs and belief in their hearts. They were all-in on Spalletti and the team’s wild ride. A 1-0 loss to Inter in their opening game of 2023 provided an important wake-up call to the Italian coach and his squad, and they responded by winning their next eight consecutive Serie A matches, a run that included a 5-1 thrashing of Juventus and an edgy 2-1 victory against Roma. Milan’s drop in form and Inter’s inconsistency meant Napoli had an 18-point lead at the top of the table by the end of this run in late February, allowing them to start drawing up plans for the biggest party the Campania capital had seen in decades. In their cup competitions, an upset defeat to Cremonese took the Coppa Italia off the table, but a Round of 16 win over Eintracht Frankfurt took them to the quarter-finals, where they were drawn up against Milan.

With the Scudetto all but assured, many Napoli fans started to dream of something truly special in the Champions League. But the team were not up to their usual standards in the two-legged quarter-final clash with the Rossoneri, and ultimately fell 2-1 on aggregate. 

Realising a dream

Despite this disappointment, nothing could spoil the mood in Naples, and it only took a few more weeks before the title was finally secured.

Frustratingly for Spalletti and his players, they couldn’t cap off their achievement at home. The Stadio Diego Armando Maradona was packed for their league clash with Salernitana on 30th April. A win would be enough to mathematically guarantee the title, but a late Boulaye Dia equaliser forced them to wait. A 1-1 draw away to Udinese just four days later would do the trick, the goal coming from (who else?) the talismanic figure in Victor Osimhen.

Regardless, the scenes of Napoli’s incredible and heartfelt celebrations were seen around the world, with many sharing the joy of the Partenopei ending their 33-year wait for Serie A glory. In a broader context, the victory also restores some joy to the city and citizens at large, with Spalletti’s work helping to even boost tourism and challenge the traditional power structure of the north-south divide. 

As Arrigo Sacchi once said, “football is the most important of the least important things in life.” This is tangibly true for Napoli and their fans. Their Serie A success has given many in the Campania capital a reason to smile and be proud of their city, and it has made a Tuscan in the form of Spalletti a legend that’ll never be forgotten in the streets of Naples.