As AC Milan travels south on Sunday for the first of three significant matches between the Serie A giants in the coming weeks, Naples is getting ready for the mother of all championship parties.
The largest metropolis in southern Italy is counting down the hours until Napoli, who currently lead Serie A by 19 points, can declare themselves champions for the first time since 1990.
Long-suffering Napoli fans have already begun decorating the city in blue and white in anticipation of their team’s almost certain win with 11 games remaining because of the size of their advantage.
In honor of what will be Napoli’s third league championship, the number three can be seen on flags, banners, and drawn in murals all over the city.
After leading Napoli to their first championship in 1987, Diego Maradona declared that a Scudetto for them “is worth 10 for Juventus.” The stars of this year’s title charge have now joined the late Argentine legend within the walls of Naples.
Victor Osimhen, the top scorer, and wing whiz Khvicha Kvaratskhelia are depicted everywhere in the city, but perhaps nowhere more so than in the Forcella neighborhood in the center, where a restroom has been decorated in the black and white of Juventus, next to a painting of the two attackers.
Osimhen, a striker from Nigeria, has become a local legend in Naples thanks to his 25 goals in Serie A and the Champions League.
A “Osimhen coffee,” served in a tall glass with sugar and cocoa on the edges and artisanal chocolate at the bottom, is available at one coffee shop nearby the anti-Juve restroom for the princely amount of three euros, which is three times the cost of an ordinary espresso coffee.
A chocolate tart with a mask resembling Osimhen’s and crumble made to resemble his blonde hair has been created in his honor by a pastry store.
