Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli S.p.A.
Founded: 1926
Captain: Lorenzo Insigne
Owner: Aurelio De Laurentiis
President: Aurelio De Laurentiis
Country: Italy
League: Serie A
Stadium: Stadio Diego Armando Maradona
Nicknames: Gli Azzurri (The Blues), I Partenopei (The Parthenopeans)
Rivals: Roma, Palermo, Juventus, Savoia, Avellino, Salernitana, Catanzaro, Bari, Foggia, Bologna
Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli, commonly referred to as Napoli, is an Italian professional football club based in Naples, Campania that plays in Serie A, the top flight of Italian football.
The club have won two league titles, six Coppa Italia titles, two Supercoppa Italiana titles, and one UEFA Cup.
The performance of Napoli in the Italian football league structure since the first season of a unified Serie A (1929/30).
Formed in 1926, the club saw relatively little success in its early years, winning one Coppa Italia in 1962.
Napoli then saw increased success in the 1980s, after the club acquired Diego Maradona. During his time in Naples, Maradona helped the team win several trophies, which led to the club retiring his number 10 jersey.
During this period, Napoli won their sole league titles, in 1987 and 1990. Following his departure, however, Napoli struggled financially, and endured several relegations, prior to being refounded in 2004 by film producer Aurelio De Laurentiis.
Under his leadership, the club has stabilized, which has led to renewed on-field success, winning the 2012, 2014, and 2020 Coppa Italia titles.
By attendance, Napoli have the fourth largest fanbase in Italy. Napoli are also one of the associate members of the European Club Association.
Since 1959, the club has played their home games at Stadio San Paolo, and have traditionally worn sky blue shirts and white shorts. Napoli also have a long-standing rivalry with Roma and a rivalry with Palermo. The club’s anthem is “‘O surdato ‘nnammurato”.
History
The first club was founded as Naples Foot-Ball & Cricket Club in 1905 by English sailor William Poths and his associate Hector M. Bayon.
Neapolitans such as Conforti, Catterina and Amedeo Salsi were also involved, the latter of whom was the club’s first president.
The original kit of the club was a sky blue and navy blue striped shirt, with black shorts. Naples’ first match was a 3–2 win against the English crew of the boat Arabik with goals from William MacPherson, Michele Scafoglio and Léon Chaudoir.
Early into its existence, the Italian Football Championship was limited to just northern clubs, so southern clubs competed against sailors or in cups such as Thomas Lipton’s Lipton Challenge Cup.
In the cup competed between Naples and Palermo FBC, Naples won three finals. The foreign contingent at the club broke off in 1912 to form Internazionale Napoli, in time for both club’s debut in the Italian Championship of 1912–13.
Associazione Calcio Napoli
Under the presidency of Giorgio Ascarelli, the club changed its name to Associazione Calcio Napoli on 25 August 1926.
After a poor start, with a sole point in an entire championship, Napoli was readmitted to Serie A’s forerunner, the Divizione Nazionale, by the Italian Football Federation (“FIGC”), and began to improve thanks in part to Paraguayan-born Attila Sallustro, who was the first fully-fledged hero to the fans.
He was a capable goal-scorer and eventually set the all-time goal-scoring record for Napoli, which was later surpassed by players like Diego Maradona and Marek Hamšík.
Napoli entered the Serie A era under the management of William Garbutt. During Garbutt’s six-year stint, the club would be dramatically transformed, frequently finishing in the top half of the table.
This included two third-place finishes during the 1932–33 and 1933–34 seasons, with added notables such as Antonio Vojak, Arnaldo Sentimenti and Carlo Buscaglia.
However, in the years leading up to World War II, Napoli went into decline, only surviving relegation in 1939–40 by goal average.
Napoli lost a closely contested relegation battle at the end of 1942 and were relegated to Serie B. They moved from the Stadio Giorgio Ascarelli to the Stadio Arturo Collana and remained in Serie B until after the war.
When play continued, Napoli earned the right to compete in Serie A, but were relegated after two seasons for a bribery scandal. The club bounced back to ensure top-flight football at the start of the 1950s.
Napoli moved to their new home ground Stadio San Paolo in 1959. Despite erratic league form with highs and lows during this period, including a further relegation and promotion, Napoli had some cup success when they beat SPAL to lift the Coppa Italia in 1962, with goals from Gianni Corelli and Pierluigi Ronzon. Their fourth relegation cut celebrations short the following season.
Napoli on the rise: Maradona era
As the club changed their name to Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli on 25 June 1964[1] they began to rise up again, gaining promotion in 1964–65. Under the management of former player Bruno Pesaola, they won the Coppa delle Alpi and were back among the elite in Serie A, with consistent top-five finishes.
Napoli came very close to winning the league in 1967–68, finishing just behind Milan in second place. Some of the most popular players from this period were Dino Zoff, José Altafini, Omar Sívori and hometown midfielder Antonio Juliano. Juliano would eventually break the appearance records, which still stands today.
The trend of Napoli performing well in the league continued into the 1970s, with third place spots in 1970–71 and 1973–74. Under the coaching of former player Luís Vinício, this gained them entry into the early UEFA Cup competitions.
In 1974–75, they reached the third round knocking out Porto 2–0 en route. During the same season, Napoli finished second in Serie A, just two points behind champions Juventus.
Solid performances from locally born players such as Giuseppe Bruscolotti, Antonio Juliano and Salvatore Esposito were relied upon during this period, coupled with goals from Giuseppe Savoldi.
After defeating Southampton 4–1 on aggregate to lift the Anglo-Italian League Cup, Napoli were entered into the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup for 1976–77, where they reached the semi-finals, losing 2–1 on aggregate to Anderlecht.
The club won their second Coppa Italia trophy in 1975–76, eliminating Milan and Fiorentina en route, before beating rivals Hellas Verona 4–0 in the final. In the Italian league, Napoli were still very much a consistent top-six side for much of the late 1970s.
Even into the earliest two seasons of the 1980s, the club were performing respectably with a third-place finish in 1980–81. However, by 1983, they had slipped dramatically and were involved in relegation battles.
Napoli broke the world transfer record fee after acquiring Diego Maradona in a €12 million deal from Barcelona on 30 June 1984. The squad was gradually re-built, with the likes of Ciro Ferrara, Salvatore Bagni and Fernando De Napoli filling the ranks.
The rise up the tables was gradual, by 1985–86, they had a third-place finish under their belts, but better was yet to come. The 1986–87 season was the landmark in Napoli’s history; they won the double, securing the Serie A title by three points and then beating Atalanta 4–0 to lift the Coppa Italia.
Since a mainland Southern Italian team had never won the league before, this turned Maradona into a cultural, social and borderline religious icon for Neapolitans, which stretched beyond the realms of just football.
The club were unsuccessful in the European Cup in the following season and finished runners-up in Serie A. However, Napoli were entered into the UEFA Cup for 1988–89 and won their first major European title.
Juventus, Bayern Munich and PAOK were defeated en route to the final, where Napoli beat VfB Stuttgart 5–4 on aggregate, with two goals from Careca and one each from Maradona, Ferrara and Alemão.
Napoli added their second Serie A title in 1989–90, defeating Milan by two points in the title race. However, this was surrounded by less auspicious circumstances as Napoli were awarded two points for a game when in Bergamo, an Atalanta fan threw a 100 lira coin at Alemão’s head.
A controversial set of events set off at the 1990 World Cup when Maradona made comments pertaining to North-South inequality in the country and the Risorgimento, asking Neapolitans to root for Argentina in the semifinals against Italy in Naples.
“I don’t like the fact that now everybody is asking Neapolitans to be Italian and to support their national team. Naples has always been marginalised by the rest of Italy. It is a city that suffers the most unfair racism.” — Diego Maradona, July 1990
The Stadio San Paolo was the only stadium during the competition where the Argentine national anthem was not jeered, Maradona bowed to the Napoli fans at the end and his country went on to reach the final.
However, after the final, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) forced Maradona to take a doping test, which he failed testing positive for cocaine. Both Maradona and Napoli staff later claimed it was a revenge plot for events at the World Cup.
Maradona was banned for 15 months and would never play for the club again. The club still won the Supercoppa Italiana that year, with a record 5–1 victory against Juventus, but it would be their last major trophy for 22 years. In the European Cup, they were eliminated in the second round.
Decline and rebirth
Though the club finished fourth during the 1991–92 season, Napoli gradually went into decline after that season, both financially and on the field. Players such as Gianfranco Zola, Daniel Fonseca, Ciro Ferrara and Careca had all departed by 1994.
Nonetheless, Napoli qualified for the 1994–95 UEFA Cup, reaching the third round and in 1996–97, Napoli appeared at the Coppa Italia final but lost 3–1 to Vicenza.
Napoli’s league form had dropped lower, and relegation to Serie B came at the end of 1997–98 when they won only two matches all season.
The club returned to Serie A after gaining promotion in the 1999–2000 season, though after a closely contested relegation battle, they were relegated immediately back down the following season.
By August 2004, Napoli was declared bankrupt. To secure football in the city, film producer Aurelio De Laurentiis refounded the club under the name Napoli Soccer, as they were not allowed to use their old name.
FIGC placed Napoli in Serie C1, where they missed out on promotion after losing 2–1 in play-offs to local rivals Avellino in 2004–05.
Despite the fact Napoli were playing in a low division, they retained higher average attendances than most of the Serie A clubs, breaking the Serie C attendance record with 51,000 at one match.
The following season, they secured promotion to Serie B and De Laurentiis brought back the club’s history, restoring its name to Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli in May 2006.
After just one season in Serie B, they were promoted to the top division, along with fellow “sleeping giants” Genoa. In 2010, under manager Walter Mazzarri, Napoli finished in sixth place to qualify for a 2010–11 UEFA Europa League spot.
Napoli finished third in the 2010–11 season, qualifying directly to the group stage of the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League.
In the 2011–12 season, Napoli ended in fifth place in Serie A, but defeated unbeaten champions Juventus in the Stadio Olimpico to win the Coppa Italia for the fourth time in club history, 25 years after their last cup win.
The team finished second in its group of the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League, progressing to the round of 16, where they were eliminated by eventual winners Chelsea.
In 2012–13, Napoli finished in second place in Serie A, the club’s best performance since winning the 1989–90 Scudetto.
Edinson Cavani finished as top scorer in the division with 29 goals, which resulted in him being sold to Paris Saint-Germain for a club-record fee of €64 million.
In the 2013 close-season, Mazzarri left Napoli and Rafael Benitez became the club’s manager. They finished the 2013–14 season by winning the 2014 Coppa Italia Final, their fifth title in the tournament, with a 3–1 win against Fiorentina, as well as qualifying for the Champions League, but missed on playing at group stage as they lost to Athletic Bilbao in the play-off round.
Their subsequent run in the Europa League ended when they lost to FC Dnipro in the semi-finals. They finished the 2014–15 season in fifth, with Benitez then signing for Real Madrid and being replaced by Maurizio Sarri.
In Sarri’s first season in charge in the 2015–16 season, Napoli finished in 2nd place on 82 points and were knocked out of the Europa League round of 32 against Villarreal.
In the following season, Napoli finished in 3rd place on 86 points and were knocked out of the Champions League round of 16 against Real Madrid. This year saw the breakout season for Dries Mertens who scored 34 goals in all competitions after he was moved from left wing to centre-forward following Milik’s torn ACL.
In the 2017–18 season, Napoli challenged for the title for the entire season and finished with a club record of 91 points.
However, the title ultimately went to Juventus in the penultimate round of matches. On 23 December 2017, Marek Hamsik overtook Diego Maradona as Napoli’s all-time leading scorer after scoring his 115th goal.
At the end of the season, Sarri left for Chelsea, succeeded by Carlo Ancelotti in May 2018. He managed the club to another second-place finish but was sacked on 10 December 2019, following a poor run of results in the 2019–20 season which left them seventh in the table.
Gennaro Gattuso was named head coach the next day. On 14 June 2020, Dries Mertens became Napoli’s all-time top scorer after scoring his 122nd goal in a Coppa Italia semifinal match against Inter.
Napoli went on to win the 2019–20 Coppa Italia in a penalty shootout against Juventus in the final. In December 2020, Napoli renamed San Paolo after Diego Maradona, after the passing away of the club icon.
Gennaro Gattuso vacated the head coaching role at Napoli after the side failed to qualify for the 2021-22 UEFA Champions League.