People abroad would ask me: “where are you from?”; naturally I would respond: “Napoli”. The follow up question would often be: “do you mean Italy?”. This is probably the most succinct way to explain the tie between the city of Napoli and its people. Napoli is your mom, your dad, your brother, your sister, your uncle, your aunt, your grandpa, your grandma, it is all those feelings that you associate with family: love, warmth, connection, trust, protection.
Just like with any family you will find disappointment, hurt, drama, self-pity and fear, but never hate. Napoli is also one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Greek settlements were established in the area as far as the second millennium BC while it was later re-founded as Neápolis in the sixth century BC. Napoli played a key role in the merging of Greek culture into Roman society and eventually became a cultural center of the Roman Republic. Napoli remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire as capital city of the Kingdom of Napoli between 1282 and 1816 and then the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861. Napoli has the fourth-largest urban economy in Italy, the world’s second-highest level of passenger flow, after the port of Hong Kong, and Europe’s largest city center (listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site). However, its growth has been hampered by myopic leadership, exploitation, extremely high unemployment rate and endemic criminality problems. Napoli’s excellence, sometimes overshadowed by the flashier/darker newscasts, includes: unique underground city, some of the richest churches and museums, the majestic Mount Vesuvius, Pompei’s ruins, the more elitist Capri, Ischia and Sorrento, the worlds most skilled tailors, famous tie makers, state of the art ship making industries, and an unmatched entrepreneurial spirit.
In addition, something to be still proud of, Napoli is the birthplace of the world’s best pizza and of the enchanting mandolin (yes, stereotypes can also be embraced!!). Napoli is a city where paradoxes meet and give rise to an electrifying mix. Napoli’s soccer team and Napoli-the city, like in only few other places in the world, are an intertwined entity. They feed off each other energy, instincts and when the right combination is found, the mix can be unstoppable. It is only fitting then that the most controversial and greatest soccer player of all times, Diego Armando Maradona came to play for the city’s soccer team SSCN (in the mid 1980’s) and led them to success with Italian and European title wins. Napoli’s historical tendency to search for the revolutionary/out of the box/leading figure to follow to success found in Diego the perfect match. Since those days many things have changed, the soccer team has gone (until few years ago) through a series of mishaps (that even included relegations) and the city has gone thorough several (some people would say partially successful) attempts of modernization. The team is having a great season this year and, as we write, it is only 1 point behind Juventus but more importantly with a new manager, Maurizio Sarri, has been playing the best soccer in Italy. Only few other teams (with better interpreterer) play this style of ever attacking soccer in Europe: Barcelona and Bayern Munich. The most important aspect of this re-birth is a more modern approach to building a soccer club: self-sustained value creation. The previously successful strategy: looking for and signing the best player in the world and building a team around him is, at this time, financially impossible and highly risky.
European soccer is different from the mid-80’s, Italian soccer is not as financially dominant as it used to be and let’s be honest, the Messi’s and Ronaldo’s are great but they are not Diego Armando Maradona. Undoubtedly, the mastermind of this new era is the current club owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis, a prominent Italian movie producer, nephew to the world famous Dino De Laurentiis and related to the US chef Giada De Laurentiis. In 2004 he took ownership of the SSCN (that had just filed for bankruptcy and had been relegated to Serie C) and with great enthusiasm and unexpected quick learning took Napoli to series A in 4 years. Since then a steady crescendo has led the team to be the only Italian team to qualify and play in European competitions consecutively for the past 6 years. The team under earlier managers Mazzarri and Benitez has also won two Italian cups and one Italian Supercup. Clearly the ownership does not have the resources of the big European teams (Bayern Munich, Chelsea, the two Manchester’s, Barcelona and Real Madrid) or even the Italian Juventus and Roma, but with smart (some would say lucky) signing (and selling at substantially higher prices) of young great players (i.e. Lavezzi, Cavani, etc) and steady European appearances has managed to slowly build a competitive team with a balanced budget.
Clearly there are some key weaknesses in De Laurentiis business plan: inability (or unwillingness – not clear) to invest in a privately-owned stadium, a fundamental revenue generator, in infrastructures, in the youth academy and in a modernly structured club. However, in a city where (financial) success is continuously undermined, Napoli’s soccer team/club is still an example to follow, for soccer lover it offers an inspiration and a chance to dream big, for unbiased observer it is an interesting experiment. Can the Rome-born De Laurentiis, do as well or better than the famous Argentinian-born Maradona and bring Napoli (the city and the team) to the much desired title wins in Italy and in Europe? Stay tuned…