All hail Napoli's new immortals! Victor Osimhen, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia & Luciano Spalletti have made Diego Maradona proud with stunning Serie A title triumph

Napoli
Serie A
V. Osimhen
K. Kvaratskhelia
L. Spalletti
Kim Min-Jae
S. Lobotka
G. Di Lorenzo
A. Zambo Anguissa
P. Zieliński
G. Raspadori
E. Elmas
Mário Rui
A. Rrahmani
For the first time in 33 years, the Partenopei are champions of Italy - something nobody predicted last summer...

Meanwhile, his captain, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, was also struggling to get his head around such a surreal situation. Just six years ago, he had been playing in the third tier of Italian football. Now, he would become the first Napoli player since "the great (Diego) Maradona" to lift the Scudetto. "It does feel strange," the defender admitted to DAZN. "But we are all trying to savour every moment of a wonderful journey."

The players certainly enjoyed their flight back to Naples. They sang, they danced and then, in the early hours of Monday morning, they were joined at Capodichino airport by thousands of jubilant supporters, some of whom jumped on their vespas to follow the team bus all the way back to the club's headquarters.

Star striker Victor Osimhen kept saying the same thing over and over again: "It's crazy, man, it's crazy!" And it was - just pure, unadulterated insanity. But it was also wholly unsurprising.

Coach Luciano Spalletti kept trying to stress that there was still a little bit of work to do in terms of the title, but there was simply no tempering the almost palpable sense of anticipation surrounding the club's first Scudetto in 33 years.

The party had been long since prepared. Napoli's title rivals had already been 'buried'. The bakers' blue bread was even rolled out last week.

And then came the anti-climax, Napoli held at home by Salernitana last Sunday when a victory would have clinched the title in front of their own fans, and on a bank holiday weekend to boot.

Osimhen had written on Twitter after the Juve win, "Dear Neapolitans, you've waited long enough. Now, it's your turn..."

But then they were forced to wait and Serie A's capocannoniere felt personally responsible, having been nutmegged Boulaye Dia before the Salernitana forward had silenced the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

Osimhen was visibly distraught but the delay felt fitting, symbolic of a struggle: his, Spalletti's and Napoli's.

Besides, Sunday's disappointment only made Thursday's decisive strike at Udinese all the sweeter.

At precisely 22:37 on Thursday, May 4, the party officially began, after Osimhen had earned Napoli a 1-1 draw at a Dacia Arena unsurprisingly packed with Neapolitans, who let off blue smoke bombs when the Nigerian scored the goal that secured the Scudetto. Osimhen's mask was even broken during the match

Down in Naples, meanwhile, the city which lies in the shadow of Vesuvius erupted in joy. The celebrations will be wild and could last for days, maybe even weeks. As Andrea Carnevale is well aware.

"I know that the party will be something unbelievable because I experienced two of them myself," the former Napoli striker tells GOAL. "I have so many many incredible memories from both 1987 and 1990, but I have to say, the first Scudetto was something truly beautiful."

Indeed, it sparked chaotic scenes in Naples. The streets were filled with people sporting Maradona wigs. Traffic came to a standstill. People danced with joy on roofs of blocked buses, while fake funerals were held for hated rivals Juventus.

The festivities lasted so long that VHS recordings of the party were being distributed among the revellers before it had even come to a conclusion.

When it was finally all over, someone wrote on the wall of the Poggioreale cemetery, "You don't know what you've missed!" A reply arrived the following morning, "Who told you that we [missed] it?!"

Carnevale's eyes light up as he thinks back on those two titles. "I feel like I'm a little part of the history of Napoli," Udinese's current head of scouting says, and he's not wrong. Carnevale was crucial to Napoli's historic triumph in 1986-87, scoring in each of their final eight games.

"Even now, after more than 30 years, when I go down to Napoli to do interviews and other things, I'm always honoured," he reveals. "For them, I'm still one of the heroes of Napoli's first Scudetto.


In total, it's taken him 553 games to reach the summit of Serie A - no title-winning coach has ever had to wait so long for their first Scudetto and, at 64, he's the oldest to ever do it.

"I have not travelled around in first class looking out of the window," he said of his coaching career, "it was by hitch-hiking! "So, this Scudetto... repays you for all the sacrifices that you made over the

Spalletti was hardly to blame. He openly admitted that he was concerned by the loss of so many leaders, and Koulibaly's exit hit him particularly hard. He adored the Senegal centre-half not only as a player, but a man, and had even threatened to chain himself to the gates of the Maradona to prevent Koulibaly from leaving.

"Some players have left and they take things with them, players like Ospina, Ghoulam, Koulibaly, Mertens, Insigne, so they take with them
"A new Napoli is being born," he declared in an interview with Il Roma. "It's true that we have lost some strong players, but just as many good ones have arrived."

Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, a €15 million (£13m/$17m) signing from Fulham, has proven himself a pressing machine,

Meanwhile, former Fenerbahce centre-back Kim Min-jae is now being linked with both Manchester United and Manchester City after doing something that would have been unthinkable last summer:

Earlier this month, nearly four decades after children all across Naples were christened 'Diego', a local couple named their child Daniele Khvicha by way of tribute to the city's new king of the dribble.

Kvaratskhelia's face has also popped up on a number of new murals, usually alongside the other bona fide star of Spalletti's side: Osimhen.

It is the Nigerian who arguably best personifies the talent and tenacity of this new Napoli. He arrived from Lille three years ago, but like so many of those around him - Mario Rui, Amir Rrahmani and Stanislav Lobotka to name but three - has elevated his game to a whole other level this season.

Again, though, the bond that Osimhen has formed with the fans is about more than football. They stuck by their record signing during a trying start to his Serie A career because they see him as one of their own.

Great

Congratulations to him and I wish him more trophies in his career with man United

Ever8090:
Congratulations to him and I wish him more trophies in his career with man United

the next MAN U NO 9

Congrat to them.
Not easy at all after 33yrs