Napoli’s stadium has been renamed after footbal legend Diego Maradona in his honour following his demise last month. The Argentine is considered to be the club’s greatest-ever legend.
The Naples town hall approved the change in name of the stadium which was earlier known as San Paolo Stadium. The proposal to rename it had come from Napoli’s club president.
“The decree was signed by the entire city council,” the city government said in a statement. The statement called Maradona “the greatest footballer of all time who, with his immense talent and magic, honoured the Naples jersey for seven years, offering it two Italian league titles and other prestigious trophies, and receiving, in exchange, the eternal and unconditional love of the entire city”.
Napoli, whose next home game will be against Real Sociedad in the Europa League on Thursday, have already paid tributes to Maradona, who played for the club from 1984 to 1991, in two home games.
All the players wore his number ten shirt for a minute’s silence in a Europa League match a day after the legendary footballer’s death. In serie A on Sunday, Napoli players turned out against AS Roma with a jersey reminiscent of the Argentine colours.
Maradona, who led Argentina to victory at the 1986 FIFA World Cup and was widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, died on November 24 due to cardio-respiratory arrest at his home in the Tigre district on the northern outskirts of Buenos Aires.
Considered as one of the best footballers of all time, beside Brazilian legend Pele, Maradona breathed his last after suffering a cardio-respiratory attack at his home in Buenos Aires at the age of 60.
Maradona, who had played 91 games for Argentina and scored 34 goals, was believed to have “single-handedly” won Argentina the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, where he had also scored the infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal against England.
At the club level, Maradona had reached the pinnacle of the sport at Napoli where he had won two Italian Serie A titles in 1987 and 1990. He was also a talismanic figure in Napoli’s Italian Cup winning teams in 1987 and the UEFA Cup in 1991.