A SLICE OF ITALY

THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE in Naples is Diego Maradona. His face appears as graffiti on the walls under bridges, as murals covering the side of buildings, painted on café chairs, imprinted on bedroom sheets, and even marketed on energy drinks.

- NITIN CHAUDHARY

Where his face is not watching over, his jersey number—number 10—is present. Souvenir stands are covered in scarves, jerseys, and posters of Maradona with trinkets of red chillies which are considered to be a symbol of luck across the region. Why is Maradona so prevalent everywhere? I wondered aloud while waiting in a queue to grab a slice of pizza.

"Well, he was our saviour," answered a local man standing next to me. "Here we believe we have been robbed for centuries but Diego was a saviour for us."

Neapolitans' deep-seated sense of injustice stems from the Risorgimento era—a feeling that Naples got the short end of the stick during the unification between the North and the South. They saw the North as the beneficiary of power and prosperity, while other regions, including their own, were marginalised. In this context Maradona's shortcomings were overlooked as long as he managed to beat the northern teams.