The eyes of football fans will turn to Diego Armando Maradona stadium tomorrow evening, Friday, to follow the summit Napoli vs Juventus In the 18th round of the Italian League championship, in a classic summit and a match that was the most important in the world nearly 40 years ago.
Despite the distinguished start of Napoli in the current season, but he lost two matches in the last 3 meetings against Lille in the Champions League 4-1 and Inter with a goal in the Italian League, but he managed to win the last match against Sampdoria with two goals without a response, to maintain the league lead with 44 points. And a full 7 points difference from Juventus, who is suffering this season with Allegri, but the team succeeded in advancing the Calcio ranking table by keeping its record undefeated since losing to Milan last October.
Napoli vs Juventus
The rivalry between Juventus and Napoli stemmed from the historic territorial rivalry between northern Italy and southern Italy, with the two clubs’ cities Turin and Naples being major urban and economic centres. The rivalry began to gain more interest in the 1980s when Napoli became league contenders and actually managed to achieve the title in the 86-87 season, with then world champion Diego Armando Maradona as the first team from southern Italy to achieve the Scudetto.
Napoli returned to win a new and final title in the 1989-1990 season, before the South team declined sharply and disappeared from the struggle and competition for titles.
During many years and decades, multiple crises arose at all levels between northern and southern Italy, since the southern “kingdoms of the Two Sicilies” with its capital Naples, which was a great economic power, and the northern one with its capital Turin, which was suffering at the time. After several years had passed, the north decided to agree and join European countries, in coordination With Britain and France, he waged a war on the south, killing large numbers of victims of Naples, which resisted strongly on its lands, so that the situation would change until now, by calling the city of Naples the title of “the poor of the south”, and the city of Turin would become revitalized at all levels.
Despite the unification of Italy, the enmity did not stop between the north and the south, between the people of Naples and the people of Turin, so that football became part of this conflict, which moved accordingly to the football stadiums between the north and south clubs.
The struggle of the best in the world
The competition reached its peak in the eighties, when Napoli glowed with the legend Maradona to become the icon of the south, and competed with Juventus, the great north, which at that time included Frenchman Michel, who was crowned the European Championship with France in 1984, the best player in Europe 3 times, and the Champions League title with Juve in 1983.
Platini remained on the throne of the best in Italy since joining in 1982 from Saint-Etienne until Maradona came to Naples from Barcelona, in 1984 to snatch the spotlight from the Frenchman before his retirement in 1987, and Maradona succeeded in leading Argentina to crown the 86 World Cup and leading the Tango to the final of 90 and placing Naples. on the European football map.
Platini spoke earlier to the Italian network Sport Media Set about Maradona and said: “We were never enemies with Maradona, but we came from different experiences, families and different countries. I was born in France, where people were not interested in the ball, and I did not believe that being a football player It could be a job for you, but Maradona comes from a country that loves football in everything.
After Maradona’s death, Platini said: “I am very sad. I feel nostalgic for the great era“. “Diego has made an impact on my life“.
Michel Platini and Maradona