The greatest player of all time? Pelé, Messi, Maradona ... Everywhere there is debate, except in Naples, where Maradona is the undisputed No. 1 and where Messi, another candidate for the crown, will play for the first time Tuesday with Barcelona in the Champions League. "It will be a special moment to see Messi at the San Paolo, yes. But the biggest remains Maradona. Forever ”, assures Massimo Vignati, whose mother was governess and cook of the“ Pibe de Oro ”during his seven Neapolitan years and whose cellar houses an extraordinary museum dedicated to Argentine genius.
"I can't wait to see how"
Lionel MessiNowhere else than in Naples probably there is such an identification between a player and a stadium. The San Paolo is the stadium of Maradona, the home of Maradona. And Messi never played it. “I have been wanting to play in this stadium for a long time and the opportunity did not come. It has arrived and I can't wait to see how it is. It will be a great experience to play there, "said the Barcelona player this week in an interview with Mundo Deportivo .
Before him, other Argentine attackers came. And they understood. "Everyone was telling me about him. I understood that here he is God, ”said Sergio Agüero. "The first time, I cried with emotion," said Hernan Crespo. "I had chills when I thought that Diego played here," said Gonzalo Higuain.
None of them, of course, have the scale of Messi, but their testimony confirms that the stadium in the Fuorigrotta district, and Naples in general, have not been quite like other places for the past seven seasons ( 1984-91) of "El Diez" in the blue jersey. "Maradona in Naples is like San Gennaro", explains Massimo Vignati with reference to the city's patron saint, whose "miracle" of blood liquefaction is celebrated three times a year.
Hair and cemetery
The face of the former Napoli n ° 10 is everywhere on the city walls and we even come on a pilgrimage to contemplate one of his (supposed) hair, recovered from the back of an airplane seat in the return from a match in Turin. The relic is exposed on a small handcrafted altar installed inside the Nilo bar, in the city center. "Diego Armando Maradona made us see things that no one can imagine," said Bruno Alcide, the owner of the establishment, in 2017.
Local idolatry is powerful and it is even said that "Santa Maradona" speaks to the dead. The day after the first scudetto won by Napoli in 1987 - the year of Messi's birth - a message to the deceased was thus written on a wall of a city cemetery: "What did you miss?" ... ".
The living, they did not drag for this round of 16 first leg of the Champions League between Naples and Barça. Despite the very high prices, the queues at the counters got longer, a sign that even at Maradona, the genius of Messi is worth admiring.
Lorenzo Insigne, the Neapolitan captain, will be at the forefront. “Messi has qualities that no one else has. In one against one it is incomparable. He is very discreet and I think that it does him credit. He is also a champion off the field, "he told Sky Sport. Yes, but compared to Maradona? “After Maradona, Messi is the strongest player in the world. Maradona always first. ” his trainer, Gennaro Gattuso, is less chauvinist, he who arrived in Naples only a few months ago. "Messi is the greatest and he is an example for all, he never says a word higher than the other. He does things that only exist on the Playstation, things unthinkable. He's been the greatest of all time for a few years now, "explained the 2006 world champion at a press conference.
Relaunched on the comparison with Maradona, who played in Naples from 1984 to 1991, Gattuso replied that the idol of Napoli was "a god of football." But I saw it on VHS, or on DVD. Up close, at the stadium, I never saw it. I know the champion he was and I know I missed something wonderful. I regret. Today I see Messi doing things that Maradona was doing. ”
AFP
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