It took more than 12,000 days for the napoli show the world that he could once again be champion of the Italian league without needing the feet of Diego Armando Maradona. This was made clear with their 2022-23 Serie A title, confirmed after the draw (1-1) against Udinese on matchday 33, which allowed them to return to the throne, curiously, after 33 years.
After an extraordinary season that has included beatings Juventus, ajax and Liverpool (before the latter in Champions League), he napoli He came into the match against Udinese with the task of scoring at least one point to become champion. He doubted it until the 52nd minute, when he trailed 1-0, but a forehand from Victor Osimhen regained the breath of the Neapolitan fans and revived the winning spirit of Maradona’s era.
“My greatest emotion is to see the Neapolitan fans happy. The problem was getting here, they went through certain moments in their lives thinking about this moment. These people have the right to live these moments, now I feel calmer, I have achieved it, happiness ends here”, reflected the Napoli coach, Luciano Spalletti.
This is the first Serie A title for Napoli since the 1989-90 season, when Maradona dominated soccer globally. Since then they have gone through a martyrdom of three relegations (including two years in Serie C, Italy’s third division) and an inexhaustible parade of players and coaches who did not achieve the desired goal.
It had to be a generation headed by the Nigerian Victor Osimhen, the Georgian Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, the South Korean Kim Min Jae, the Pole Pietr Zielinski, among other multiple nationalities from four continents that recovered the trophy, reaching 80 points in 33 games, already unattainable for Lazio, Juventus and Inter Milan with five days left to finish the season.
Within that multicultural squad is Hirving Lozano, who became the first Mexican to be a Serie A champion. The ‘Chucky’ He has spent four seasons in Napoli in which he has contributed a total of 30 goals and 17 assists, in addition to reaching the top of his market value with 45 million euros in 2021.
“This is incredible, I live it very passionately because many people don’t know what I’ve been through at this club. They have cost me many things, but in the end I have come to this and I am super happy. The Neapolitan people are similar to the Mexican people, they have incredible love for the team, so this Scudetto is for them. Nobody believed in us at the beginning of the year,” said Lozano, a World Cup player for Mexico in Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022.
With Napoli, the Mexican striker has already tied his most titles with the same club, adding a Serie A and an Italian Cup. With his training club, Pachuca, he also won two trophies, the Liga MX (in the Clausura 2016) and the concachampions of 2017. He also has a trophy from the first division of the Netherlands (Eredivisie 2018) playing with PSV Eindhoven.
Lozano was signed by Napoli in 2019 and at that time he was managed by Carlo Ancelotti, the current winningest coach in the history of the Champions League. Then he had Genaro Gattuso but finally found success, like the rest of his teammates, in Luciano Spalletti, who is managing his eighth club in Italy and experiencing his first league title in 29 years of coaching career.
“For those who are used to working hard like me, this is not easy, I can’t fully burst with happiness. Joy is fleeting. I won, yes, but I have to go back and work!” Spalletti said amid the celebrations. As a symbol of his tenacity, his title with Napoli makes him the oldest manager to win Serie A at 64 years and 58 days.
In addition to the coaches, star players have passed through the ranks of Napoli during these 33 years, such as Fabio Cannavaro (winner of the Ballon d’Or in 2006), Edison Cavani, Mark Hamsik, Gonzalo higuain, kalidou Koulibaly, Lawrence Distinguished and Pepe Queen. They managed to return the team to the Champions League and to the top positions in Italy, but they did not achieve the triumph of the current generation.
The formation of this winning team was a success for the sports director, Cristiano Giuntoli, who managed to acquire key players such as Kim Min-jae and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia for 18 and 11.5 million euros, respectively, and taking advantage of extraordinary situations such as the war between Russia and Ukraine, which allowed Khvicha to break his contract with Russian Rubin Kazan (which expired in 2024) in order to join Napoli. They ended up being fundamental before the departure of Koulibaly and Insigne.
Thanks to them and the rest of the squad, the fans changed their tears of sadness for those of happiness. At this point in 2004, the Neapolitans mourned the first descent of their team to the third division, but now, with a revolution that even made analysts all over Europe fall in love with their historic participation in the Champions League quarterfinals, Napoli is experiencing a completely different situation.
It is true that he barely has three league titles in his history, far from the great monsters of Italian soccer, Juventus (34), Inter (17) and AC Milan (16), but for the Neapolitans it means recovering the winning spirit that had been fallen asleep for 33 years; It is to feel Maradona’s talent again, now distributed among soccer players who contributed his talent from Nigeria, Georgia, South Korea, Kosovo, Cameroon, Slovakia, Poland, Mexico and other latitudes. All of them contributed so that the words Napoli champion came together again.
Contribution of ‘Chucky’ Lozano to Napoli
Seasons: 4
Matches: 154
Minutes: 8,175
Goals: 30
Assists: 17
Titles: 2 (Serie A and Italian Cup)
Source: Transfermarkt
