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The legendary club of Diego Maradona returned to the second most powerful league in Italy, "Serie B" after a victory against an opponent who had recently played at the highest level, the leader of the "Serie C1" B group acquired a twelve-point lead over the struggling club "Frosinone" with three games left until the end of the season.
A staggering 50,000 spectators gathered at the "San Paolo" stadium to watch the match of the sleeping giant of Italian football against "Perugia". After goals from Emanuele Calaio and Marco Capparello, the hosts secured a victory and a ticket to the next season's "Serie B" league.
The Naples club, inspired by Diego Maradona's playing, won the Italian championships in 1987 and 1990, as well as the UEFA Cup in 1989. In 2004, they managed to avoid relegation to "Serie B," but due to financial problems, they were expelled from the league. When the club declared bankruptcy, it was restructured by the son of the famous film producer Dino De Laurentiis, Aurelio, and in this second attempt (last year "Napoli" lost in the play-offs for promotion to "Serie B"), the club managed to bring closer to the dream of returning to the elite "Serie A".
"It was amazing to see the celebrating fans. They are fantastic and totally deserve this joy. We worked hard to return to "Serie B," but now we will have to work even harder if we want to return to "Serie A" as soon as possible," said A. De Laurentiis. "This season was great for us, in difficult moments we showed our psychological strength. We had to rise higher because a city like Naples deserves "Serie A" and teams competing in European tournaments."
Interestingly, next season, "Serie B" might have to host another famous club, as the team that has become the Italian champion nine times in its history currently leads the "Serie C1" group - with two games left until the end of the championship, the Genoa team leading the league has a 3-point advantage over "Spezia". It is worth noting that last season "Genoa" celebrated promotion to "Serie A," but they lost this right and were relegated to "Serie C1" due to agreed matches at the end of the season.
