The tears of Naples for Diego Armando Maradona

"La Napoli che piange" is the title of one of the many funeral posters around the city. Naples mourns one of his child, one of those he loved most of all for the emotion he created from the first to the last day of his life in blue. Telling the pain is never easy, but the right photos often arrive where words don't. In the last three days there have been many gathering points where Napoli fans met to celebrate the Pibe de Oro, the man who helped make Naples a cultural and sporting capital. From the Maschio Angioino to the Quartieri Spagnoli, up to the pilgrimage to what will soon officially become the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.

Gianluca Monti, one of the most authoritative Neapolitan journalists, called Diego "the most important Neapolitan of the last 100 years" and it is the truth. The culture of an entire city owes a lot to one of its main heroes, one of those who - like Pino Daniele, Massimo Troisi and Totò - was and always will be the face of the Neapolitan people.

The tears of the city tell the essence of the "pain brought to the square" that has historically characterized the soul of Naples since the dawn of time. But exactly as it happened for Pino Daniele, Diego has the strength to speak to all generations. The many manifestations that capture these shots do not convey the stereotypical image of the Neapolitans who tend to advertise the pain excessively. But everything that has been seen and that will still be seen tells of people who lived Diego next to those who, for reasons of age, live only on legends, videos, narratives. In the squares there are not only Napoli fans but families, fathers and sons, who pass on that need for identity that has represented and will always represent Diego Armando Maradona.

In the book "Dio ci ha creati gratis. Il Vangelo secondo i bambini di Arzano", Marcello d'Orta collects religious themes carried out by elementary school children. It is strange to see that among the themes there is also Maradona, considered by some children as a divinity. One of the comments - also reported on the back cover - reads: "If Maradona didn't take drugs and didn't say motherfuckers at the World Cup, if he didn't cheat on his wife and trained every day, he could become a saint". Despite man's mistakes, despite everyone knows the dark sides of the best player ever, as good friends, parents and fellow adventurers, the Neapolitans forgive everything to Diego, the new patron of Naples and its people.