Napoli seal first Italian football league title in 33 years | Football news

A 1-1 draw at Udinese gave Napoli the point they needed to win their first league title since 1990.

Napoli finally ended their long wait for Serie A victory by joining the late club icon Diego Maradona in the history books by crowning Italian champions with a record five games to spare.

A 1-1 draw at Udinese on Thursday gave Napoli the point they needed to end a 33-year wait, sparking wild celebrations among thousands of fans in Udine, the Stadio Maradona in Naples and across southern Italy’s biggest city.

Supporters poured onto the pitch at the Dacia Arena to celebrate after a season dominated by Luciano Spalletti, creating tense moments with the home fans not happy with such open celebrations on the pitch.

Victor Osimhen scored the decisive second-half goal as Napoli’s current stars came back after Sandi Lovrics’ opener at half-time to emulate the Maradona-led teams that won the league in 1987 and 1990.

I just have no words to compare him, to be the captain after Maradona to lift the Scudetto, said skipper Giovanni Di Lorenzo. This is not my title, it belongs to every player and the people who worked to make our dream come true.

Spalletti and his team will receive an emotional welcome on their return to Napoli, where the city-wide celebrations will continue until at least their next home game against Fiorentina on Sunday night.

Seeing the Neapolitans happy is enough to give you a sense of the joy they feel, Spalletti told DAZN on the verge of tears.

These people are waiting for this moment when life gets hard, they have every right to celebrate like this. You will feel a little more relaxed knowing that you gave them this moment of happiness.

It was fitting that Osimhen was the man to get Napoli over the line as the Nigerian forward has had the best season of his career and was key to Napoli’s historic glory.

Osimheni’s title-clinching strike was his 22nd goal in 28 league games and rightly caused consternation among the away fans who took over Udine.

Napoli’s 16-point lead over second-placed Lazio leaves them with a month-long parade between this season and the end of the season, giving their long-suffering supporters a chance to vent more than a generation of frustration.

Spalletti said Diego Maradona oversaw Napoli and helped his old club eventually secure the Serie A title.

Maradona, who died in 2020, is considered by many to be the greatest footballer of all time and spent his peak years at Napoli, where he won two league titles and the 1989 UEFA Cup.

Tributes to Maradona can be found all over Naples, and the football-mad city considers him the patron saint of a team that has never reached the same heights since his departure in 1991.

It is Spalletti’s first Italian league title in a long and eventful coaching career and the charismatic Toscana was almost overcome with emotion as he can no longer be considered the almost man of Italian football.

Yeah! We Are Champions supporter Roberto Santoniello told Reuters TV, proudly wearing his club jersey as others shouted, waved flags, lit torches and firecrackers in central Trieste and Trento Square in Naples.

The police had banned fireworks, but that didn’t stop Napoli’s sky from lighting up as soon as the game against Udinese was over. The authorities also banned car and scooter traffic from the city center to minimize the risk to public order.

I’ve been waiting for the Napoli Scudetto since I was little, said a teenage girl outside with two friends, her cheeks painted Napoli blue. It’s a win for the whole city, it’s wonderful, he added, declining to give his name.