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The mayor of Naples began the formal course of to rename the San Paolo stadium for Diego Maradona on Thursday.
The transfer comes with the town in mourning for the soccer nice, who died Wednesday of a coronary heart assault at age 60, two weeks after being launched from a hospital in Buenos Aires following mind surgical procedure.
“We’re already placing it collectively this morning, taking the primary steps to dedicate Naples’ stadium to Maradona,” Luigi De Magistris mentioned. “It’s a course of however will probably be a fast course of, as a result of when there may be such a powerful want there’s nothing that may maintain us up.
“We’re hoping to make it coincide with the resumption of video games with followers,” the mayor added.
The town operates the San Paolo stadium, the place Maradona led Napoli to its solely two Serie A titles in 1987 and 1990.
Napoli performs Croatian aspect Rijeka on Thursday within the Europa League in a match that might be empty of followers as a result of coronavirus pandemic.
Nevertheless, followers have been already outdoors the stadium late Wednesday and into Thursday morning waving banners, singing songs and lighting flares in Maradona’s honor — although gatherings are technically banned within the metropolis, which is situated in a coronavirus “pink zone.”
“Maradona is sort of a father, like a brother, a member of the family for us,” mentioned one fan outdoors the stadium, Raffaele Cuomo. “Sadly it’s like somebody from the household died, and it’s like part of Naples has died.”
Added Anna Carpi, one other Naples resident: “It broke my coronary heart. … However Diego will at all times be with us, in our coronary heart.”
When Maradona joined Napoli in 1984, the southern membership had gained just about nothing and was far eliminated each geographically and socio-economically from the nation’s soccer capitals of Milan and Turin.
“It sparked the revival of a folks,” De Magistris mentioned. “He loves Naples and so he wished to — by way of soccer — make the world find out about a metropolis filled with humanity, affection, power and fantasy.
“Even at this time I see younger youngsters who didn’t (see him play), like my youngsters, who nonetheless have Maradona of their minds and of their hearts.”
Il Mattino, Naples’ main newspaper, had a front-page headline Thursday that mentioned merely, “Grazie” — “Thank You.”
The Gazzetta dello Sport, the nation’s main sports activities newspaper, devoted its first 23 pages to Maradona.
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Extra AP soccer: https://apnews.com/Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Andrew Dampf is at https://twitter.com/AndrewDampf
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