Naples is the first city in southern Italy, the third largest metropolis in Italy after Milan and Rome, and has prospered as a port city and commercial city for more than a thousand years.
As we all know, Italy is an old football powerhouse, and located in Naples, the Napoli club named after the city is also an old Serie A team, with good results, talents, and a fan base, and is the second strongest Italian team outside the three heroes of Serie A.
In terms of honors, since the establishment of Naples in 1926, the most representative honors are two Serie A titles (86/87, 89/90), 1 UEFA Cup (1990), 6 Italian Cups and 2 Italian Super Cups.
The sky blue jersey has always been the symbol of Napoli. When it comes to the representative players in the history of the Napoli team, I wonder who you will think of? In this article, the author will synthesize the four major factors of team age, contribution, fame, and strength when playing, and comprehensively inventory the top ten representative players in the history of Napoli for your reference.
X. Christian Marjoll
Christian Marjo, 34, currently plays for Lecce in Serie B, is a right-back with strong insertion ability and impactful playing style, with a tall physique, accurate passing, and occasional cameo appearances as a centre-back or even a midfielder.
Between 2008 and 2018, Christian Marjo scored 20 goals in a total of 233 appearances for Napoli, making him one of the team's second glory days in franchise history.
Looking back on Marjo's career, his heyday was from 2010 to 2014, when he was a regular for the Italian national team, participating in the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012.
IX. Fabio Cannavaro
Back in his childhood, Fabio Cannavaro showed his football talent early, and at the age of 12, he was brought into the team's youth training by his hometown team Napoli, and then quickly became a first-class central defender in Serie A, and is also the most representative youth player in the history of the team and a classic case of the team's star-making ability.
During his youth years, as a super rookie who focused on promotion, Cannavaro, who played as a center-back, was given the opportunity to practice with the first team players early, guarding Napoli players including Maradona in practice matches.
By 1993, Fabio Cannavaro, who was not yet 20 years old, had become the main centre-back of the team. Due to the team's financial problems, Fabio Cannavaro spent only three seasons in Napoli after his debut before being sold to Parma by the team.
Incidentally, after Fabio Cannavaro joined Napoli, his younger brother Paulo Cannavaro also joined the Napoli youth academy, also playing as a central defender, playing for Napoli for nine years.
Maybe the team is not old enough, but as the first world footballer to come out of the Napoli youth training factory, I personally think Fabio Cannavaro is qualified to be here.
VIII. Edinson Cavani
In terms of team age, Edinson Cavani is not particularly prominent in napoli's team history, and when it comes to this Uruguayan player, fans may also think of his status as a big Parisian and the label of a current member of the Red Devils Manchester United.
Looking back on Cavani's career, Napoli is where he really started moving from an average top five league striker to a world-class striker. In terms of the level of immediate combat strength when playing for the team, Cavani can rank very high in the history of Napoli.
After joining Napoli from Palermo in 2010, Cavani scored more than 30 goals in each of his next three seasons, becoming a potential reinforcement for the european giants.
In the 12/13 season, Cavani scored 29 goals in 34 Appearances in Serie A, averaging 0.85 goals per game, ranking fourth in Europe, behind Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi and Falcao. In the summer of 2013, Naples sold Cavani, then 26, to Paris Saint-Germain for up to 63 million euros.
At first, Napoli rented and then bought Cavani from Palermo, which cost only 16 million euros. From a financial point of view, Cavani has made a great contribution to Napoli, and he has always been a good player who is deeply respected by the fans of Napoli.
VII. Gonzalo Higuain
Due to the club's continued reinforcement and The general consideration of Higuain's compatibility with Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid listed higuain for sale in the summer of 2013, attracting the interest of many teams, including Arsenal.
In the summer of the same year, after selling Cavani for 64 million euros, Napoli needed to add a replacement to cut off Higuain, who had even completed a medical examination for Arsenal, for 37 million euros.
When he joined Napoli, Higuain was 26 years old, the same age as Cavani, who left Napoli. After coming to the team, Higuain, who has absolute forward status and the right to fire, continues to play a world-class striker. Napoli, with Hamsik, Mertens, Callejon and others, is very strong on the offensive line, with excellent ability to deliver cannonballs and create opportunities in front of goal, and Higuain has many opportunities to play nanny balls in Napoli or take advantage of the falcon to hunt rabbits in front of the goal, and Napoli's career average of goals per game exceeded 0.7.
In the 15/16 season, Higuain scored 36 goals in 35 Serie A appearances, breaking the Serie A goal record held by Nordal for 66 years. By July 2016, Juventus had bought Higuain for a record-breaking Serie A 90 million euros. In the Juve era, Higuain's performance has declined slightly, but it still has world-class standards.
6. Dris Mertens
Dris Mertens, a full-timer from Belgium, is an active napoli player and the team's all-time top scorer king in Napoli.
A belgian football talent, Dris Mertens went to PSV Eindhoven in the Dutch League at the age of 22 and became known there, where he has been playing ever since he moved to Napoli at the age of 24.
For a long time in the past, Dris Mertens has maintained a very high level of play and is one of the representatives of Naples. This season, the 34-year-old has scored five goals in 13 Serie A appearances, and his performance is still remarkable.
At his peak, 16/17, he played 35 games in a single season with 28 goals and 9 assists. In the three years from 16 to 19, he averaged 20 goals and 8 assists per season, and his ability should be able to play for and play in many of the top giants in Europe. In 2020, Mertens scored his 122nd goal for Napoli, overtaking former teammate Marek Hamsik as the club's top scorer.
V. Marek Hamsik
Marek Hamsik, Slovak football star, the king of appearances in the history of the Napoli team, the number one person at the Napoli club for a long time in the past, the hairstyle and technology are impressive.
Marek Hamsik is a young midfielder who has reached world-class attack and defense early and is quite good at personal long-range shooting. In 2004, at the age of 17, Hamsik came to Brescia in Serie A to develop, and in 2007, he was bought by Napoli, who returned to Serie A, and began an 11-year Napoli career.
In the 12 years from 2007 to 2019, he made 522 appearances for Napoli, scoring 121 goals, and was the top scorer in Mertens' previous team history, who was selected for the Best Serie A team three times, won the Serie A assist king twice, and was selected to the Europa League Team of the Year once, and handed over a statistic of 10 goals and 22 assists in 42 games in his heyday.
In the 12/13 season, Hamsik led the team to the runner-up position in Serie A, the closest he has come to the Serie A title and the post-Maradona era. In addition, Hamsik has helped the team win two Coppa Italia titles and one Italian Super Cup as an absolute core.
In 2018, Hamsik left the Napoli club he had been playing for a long time and came to play for a short time in the Chinese Super League. Currently, the 34-year-old Hamsik plays for Gothenburg in the Swedish Premier League.
Fourth, Kareka
Originally from Brazil, Kareca is a star of São Paulo club & Napoli and one of the international players of the Brazilian national team in the 1980s. Carreca debuted from Brazil's small club Guarani, moved to São Paulo in 1983 and helped the team dominate Brazil twice over the next four seasons, winning the Golden Boot in 1986 and performing well in both World Cups in 1986 & 1990, scoring 7 goals in 9 games.
Fast forward to the summer of 1987, with Maradona, Napoli were pursuing a second Serie A title, for which they introduced The Carreca reinforcements up front. Between 1987 and 1993, Kareka scored 73 goals in 164 appearances for Napoli, a key figure in Napoli's second Serie A title in 1990.
III. Chiro Ferrara
When it comes to the Club of Naples, the glorious period led by Maradona in the mid-1980s and early 1990s is naturally the essence of what cannot be bypassed. Maradona, the king of the shining football world and the destruction of the city, is of course the soul of napoli, but the contribution of Chiro Ferra to Napoli is also indelible.
As a centre-back, Chiro Ferrara is a native of Napoli and an excellent star in the Napoli youth system. Fast forward to 1984, in the summer when Maradona had just arrived at Napoli, the 17-year-old Ferrara was on the Napoli first-team squad.
It didn't take long for Ferrara to grow into the most reliable defender in Napoli and join the Italian national team roster. From 1984 to 1994, he made 247 appearances for Napoli, scoring 12 goals, and was fully involved in the beginning and end of the first glorious period in Napoli's history.
After Maradona left the team, Ferrara took over the captain's armband and became the presiding officer of Napoli. Under Ferrara, Napoli played fourth in the league in the post-Maradona era. Unfortunately, it is difficult for defenders to raise the team's ceiling, and Maradona is unique.
After staying with the team for several years, Ferrara joined Lippi from Napoli to Juventus in 1884, ending a decade of playing for his hometown team, and then won 6 Serie A titles and 1 Champions League at Juve. Incidentally, Ferrara began coaching in 2004 and briefly coached Wuhan Zall Club in 2016.
Ii. Dino Zoff
Dino Zov, a legendary Italian goalkeeper who can enter the top 5 of history in the position of goalkeeper, was Italy's main goalkeeper when he won the 1968 European Championship and the 1982 World Cup, and played for well-known Serie A clubs such as Udinese, Napoli and Juventus.
Looking back at the career of this football legend who enjoys the reputation of "Steel Gate", although it is said that he first debuted from Udinese Club, Zoff left the team very early to develop, and the real time when he began to make a name for himself in Europe was the five years from 1967 to 1972 in Napoli. Looking back at napoli's team history, Dino Zoff is the first Italian player to become a superstar in Napoli.
Diego Maradona
Back in the summer of 1984, napoli clubs, which had struggled to relegate in Serie A in the early season, came up with almost all of their money to bring in their seemingly inseparable Diego Maradona from Barcelona for $7.5 million, which immediately detonated the whole city of Naples.
For reference, the Italian transfer analysis site PlayRatings, through a specific algorithm, after considering inflation factors, calculated that Maradona was worth about 360 million euros at that time. You know, at that time, Maradona had already broken his leg by Bilbao's defender Butcher Goye Kochea.
In such a situation, in order to get Maradona, Napoli is still willing to make a desperate bet. On the day of the welcoming ceremony for Maradona, more than 70,000 fans showed up near the Stadio São Paulo to get a sneak peek at Diego.
If the top players have left a total of one stone in the history of the Napoli team, it is Maradona alone who dominates the eight buckets. In just one season, Maradona brought a Relegation Team from Serie A to Third Place in Serie A.
By the 86/87 season, Maradona had led Napoli to serie A and Copa Italia, writing about the unthinkable story of Napoli's victory and the myth of the Italian league in which the relatively poor southern Italian team defeated the rich northern team to win the championship.
In the 89/90 season, Napoli had their second Serie A title in franchise history. At the same time, Maradona led the team to win the UEFA Cup, truly allowing Napoli's influence to go out of the Italian arena for the first time. Napoli had the best seven years of kingship, during which Time Maradona scored 112 goals in 258 appearances, and in addition to the beginning and end of his Napoli career, he has been the team's top scorer and assists king.
After Maradona left Napoli, the team never stood on top of Italy again. For Napolisters, Maradona is synonymous with a sporting totem and cultural symbol, and the meaning of his name even goes beyond football.