Diego Maradona was Napoli's 'golden boy' and helped the unfancied club usurp Milan and Juventus... now fellow Argentine Gonzalo Higuain is hoping to guide them back to top of Italian football
- Napoli returned to top of Serie A following win over Inter Milan at weekend
- Argentine Gonzalo Higuain scored both goals in their 2-1 victory
- Fans are dreaming of return to glory days of Diego Maradona in 1980s
- Maradona arrived in Naples in 1984 and transformed club's fortunes
- They twice won the Serie A championship and the UEFA Cup in 1989
- Maradona is adored by the Napoli faithful until this day
It was appropriate that Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain should fire the goals that took Napoli to the top of Serie A this week.
His compatriot Diego Maradona - star of the team the last time they topped the Italian league - will always carry legendary status in one of the most exciting and exotic cities in Europe.
When you think of special relationships between players and clubs, Steven Gerrard and Liverpool springs to mind. Or Bobby Moore and West Ham.
Rarely can there be a bond so close for someone who grew up seven thousand miles away from Napoli, across the Atlantic Ocean in Buenos Aires.
Gonzalo Higuain celebrates one of his two goals in Napoli's 2-1 win over Inter Milan that took them top
Napoli's recent form has reminded fans of their 1980s heyday when Diego Maradona was in their team
With Napoli back at the top of Serie A, the fans are dreaming of a return to their late 1980s glory days
Then again, Maradona was no normal footballer, or person. You could make an argument that Pele or Lionel Messi were as good, or better, on the pitch. But none had the charisma of Maradona; only Muhammad Ali in the entire history of sport could compete with him for that.
Nowhere was Maradona's hypnotic talent and personality more adored than in Naples.
It really was a match made in heaven, the diminutive street urchin from the wrong side of the tracks in partnership with a dramatic, chaotic city in southern Italy that felt undervalued and looked down upon from the great cultural cities further north, of Rome, Turin and Milan.
Napoli were in a mess when Maradona, the world's greatest player, signed for them from Barcelona in 1984. He took them to two Serie A titles in 1987 and 1990 in a league which boasted the best clubs and players in the world; Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan; Zico, Gullit, van Basten, Klinsmann, Matthaus, Baggio.
They remain Napoli's last championship to this day, though Higuain is trying to do something about it, his two goals earning a 2-1 win against Inter Milan on Monday night to move to the top.
'Napoli non e Italia' (Napoli is not Italy), Maradona used to say. He felt right at home in a city where wealth, poverty, violence and football all co-existed on a daily basis.
Before Maradona, the biggest foreign name at the club had been the Dutch defender Ruud Krol.
That changed when a local politician, and future Government minister, Vincezo Scotti somehow raised the £7million to buy Maradona from Barcelona and 75,000 astounded Neapolitans turned up to his unveiling at the cavernous Stadio San Paolo in the west of the city. He immediately became known as "Pibe D'Oro" – The Golden Boy.
Napoli finished seventh in Maradona's debut season. Then, third. By then, manager Ottavo Bianchi had other good players like Italian internationals Fernando de Napoli and Bruno Giordano to call upon.
MARADONA AT NAPOLI
1984-1991
259 games, 115 goals
HONOURS
Serie A 1986-87, 1989-90
Coppa Italia 1986-87
UEFA Cup 1988-89
Supercoppa Italiana 1990
The Argentine was integral in Napoli's 1989 UEFA Cup success, as they beat Stuttgart 5-4 on aggregate
It remains Napoli's only European trophy - they won 2-1 at home to Stuttgart, then drew 3-3 away
Maradona runs from the field with Juventus player Antonio Cabrini following a Serie A match in March 1986
But Maradona, the only overseas player, was God. 'He must be left to express himself best he can,' said the coach, wisely.
Maradona started his third season, 1986-87, with his worldwide reputation assured after leading Argentina to the World Cup in Mexico.
What followed next was equally astonishing as he almost single-handedly took Napoli to their first league title for the first time in their history.
The key games against Michel Platini's Juventus ended in Napoli victories, 3-1 in Turin and 2-1 at home, when Maradona set up both goals.
Maradona tries to curl home a free-kick in the UEFA Cup final with German side Stuttgart
Felled by Stuttgart player Nils Schmaeler during the 1989 UEFA Cup final, second leg
The firework celebrations to mark Napoli's inaugural title and that season's Coppa Italia lasted all summer. The following season, with Brazilian World Cup striker Careca on board, they won the UEFA Cup.
A second Serie A title followed in 1990 and that summer Maradona controversially sought the support of Neapolitans to to cheer for him rather than Italy in their World Cup semi-final at San Paolo.
Argentina won on penalties to reach the final though most fans put patriotism first and cheered for Italy, while receiving Maradona well.
Over time, Maradona would be linked with drugs scandals, tax scandals, gang scandals, all dating back to his time in Naples.
But nothing has even been able to diminish the adoration for Maradona from their supporters and the city in general.
The legendary Argentine is mobbed as he returns to Napoli's San Paolo stadium in June 2005
Maradona is regarded as a saint in Naples, as this makeshift shrine to his accomplishments testifies
He might have partied hard and with the wrong people, but other memories are even stronger; an overhead kick from outside the box, a diving header two yards off the ground, scoring direct from a corner kick, or whipping a 30-yard free-kick into the top corner of the Juventus net.
He left in 1992 having scored 115 goals in 259 matches in all competitions and is still received rapturously whenever he returns "home".
'I consider myself a son of Naples,' said Maradona after one lap of honour at the San Paolo in 2011. They are big shoes for Higuain and the Class of 2015 to follow.
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