Napoli Win Their Third Serie A Title in History
This Thursday, after leading the Italian tournament for 26 match weeks, SSC Napoli faced Udinese, after failing to secure the title last Sunday against Memo Ochoa’s Salernitana. A draw sufficed to grant Napoli their first title since the days of Maradona. A drought of 33 years was finally put to rest and they did it in with an impressive campaign with 24 points ahead of Lazio, who finished second.
Despite only coming in at the 86’ minute against Udinese, Chucky Lozano has been an integral part of Luciano Spalletti’s team. A regular starter, Lozano has seen intense competition in Napoli’s attack with the arrival of Georgian superstar Khvicha Kvaratskhelia at the beginning of the season. Despite this, Chucky has remained a regular starter in both League and Champions League matches, and has become part of some of Europe’s best attacking trios, along with Kvaratskhelia and Victor Osimhen, although sometimes he and Matteo Politano share the responsability of coming on the left.
And talking about Kvaratskhelia, Napoli is very indebted to the Georgian player also known as Kvaradona, due to his resemblance to Diego Maradona’s style. It is an absolute joy to see the Georgian play with rival defenders like they were amateur teens. So many people have been compared to the legendary Argentinian, but in the case of Kvaratskhelia, that shoe might just fit the foot to a tee given the Scudetto he just won. Kvaratskhelia’s story is even more sweet considering Napoli only paid 11.5 million Euros to transfer him from his homeland team of Dinamo Batumi, and he ended up back in Georgia only after evacuating Russia’s Rubin Kazan due to the war in Ukraine. An absolute steal for what might just be the best player in Europe right now, Napoli will not see him leave for less than 100 million Euros.
Another key for Napoli this season was the arrival of Korean defender Kim Min-Jae. A lot of Napoli fans were dishearten after the departure of central defender Kalidou Koulibaly to Chelsea. The Senegalese had become one of the strongest defenders in serie A and was the most sensitive departure in the exodus of players that also included Lorenzo Insigne and the club all-time scorer Dries Mertens. Min-Jae was in charge of making Napoli fans forget all about Koulibaly with his strenght and timing in the back.
A memorable night not only for the city of Napoli, but for all the south of Italy and why not for all football lovers who still have fond memories of Maradona wearing the sky blue maglia. And for all Mexican soccer fans, a memorable night after seeing another Mexican win a league title in one of Europe’s top leagues and for the first time in Serie A.
Published: May 5th, 2023
Updated: May 29th, 2023. Updated to add content on more Napoli players
