Why the world's football hipsters love Napoli right now
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What is it that has us all in such a lather?
Napoli are on the verge of something potentially very historic and football hipsters/influencers everywhere are loving it.
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This Sunday, in the 90th minute of a potentially title-deciding game away against first-placed Juventus, when it all looked lost, Kalidou Koulibaly rose up from the penalty area scrum like some kind of leaping salmon hung suspended in time for a moment, and then met Jose Callejon's out-swinging corner with a meaty header that left Gigi Buffon stranded, sealing three points away from home and blowing this title race wide open.
Absolute. Scenes.
That win reduces the gap between Juventus and Napoli to one point, with four games to go.
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For context, if Napoli do manage to win the Scudetto, (and stop Juventus from taking their seventh consecutive title), it will be the first time they've done so since 1990, when Diego Maradona and Gianfranco Zola led the front line.
In the interim, the team from Naples have suffered financial strife and footballing obscurity, having been declared bankrupt in 2004, relegated to the third tier of Italian football, and then barred from using their old name (they were renamed Napoli Soccer). Following a revival, they reclaimed their name (Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli) in 2006 and were promoted to Serie A in 2007.
So why is the internet is enraptured by this story?
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Maybe it’s the fans, who created scenes like these to greet the team returning to Naples last night…
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And scenes like these, in London…
And who were part of scenes like these, with Juve fans, before the game.*
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*Yeah, that was probably staged, but, still, nice all the same.
Maybe it’s the fact that Napoli are Maradona’s team and it’s just fun to wind up yer da, who is still in absolute fumes over that hand-ball in ‘86.
Maybe it’s the iconic kits.
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Maybe it’s because Napoli manager Maurizio Sarri is such a classic, counter-cultural figure.
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Maybe it’s because Pep Guardiola, football hipster numero uno, is so in love with that team.
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Maybe it’s because they’re the team of the little man (literally – Lorenzo Insigne is 5ft 4'').
Maybe - as according to one take - it comes down to a cultural difference...
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Probably, it’s just a classically romantic footballing tale. The kind that we all like to get misty-eyed about, because it seems to reaffirm that this game we all love so much still has the power to surprise us and make us believe.
Yeah, that’ll be it. That and the lovely shirt.
Ps sorry Gigi - we do still love you too.
