For some, Diego Maradona is the greatest soccer player of the 20th century, for others — mainly England supporters — he is the cheating possessor of the hand of God.
However, in Italy, he is and always will be the patron saint of Naples and just as saints have their altars, so Maradona has his museum, an extraordinary treasure trove of artifacts that includes the left boot with which the Argentine scored twice against Belgium in the semi-finals of the 1986 World Cup.
You can also find his first contract with SSC Napoli and even the sofa from his Naples apartment where singer Julio Iglesias once sat. It is all there in the cellar museum.
Photo: AFP
Maradona arrived at Napoli as a world-record US$10.48 million signing from Barcelona in July 1984. His time in Catalonia had been difficult and Naples was a bolthole. He was to stay seven years, captaining the team to their first-ever Serie A title in 1986-1987. They did it again three years later and during Maradona’s stay, they also won the Coppa Italia, the UEFA Cup and the Supercoppa Italiana. It was a golden age that Napoli have never come close to repeating, so it is no surprise to find a museum that commemorates such a rich epoch.
Massimo Vignati’s museum, though, is one of a kind.
It does not appear on any map of Naples, nor is it in travel guides, and entry is free. And yet, this basement of a typical building in Secondigliano, a tough neighborhood in the north of the city, breathes all things Maradona.
It is a delightful melange of Maradona mania with photographs, pennants, balls, armbands and shirts, some washed or signed, others not.
Some items equate almost to holy relics — the bench on which Maradona changed at the Stadio San Paolo and the K-Way jacket that features in the memorable footage of him ball-juggling to the sound of Opus’ Live is Life during an incredible warm-up before facing Bayern Munich in 1989.
This astonishing hoard also testifies to the unique bond between the Argentine genius and a family that was at the heart of his seven-year stay in Naples.
“I was fortunate that for 37 years my dad was the caretaker of the San Paolo Stadium and the Napoli changing rooms. And my mother was Maradona’s housekeeper and cook,” Vignati said.
His sister babysat Diego’s daughters, Dalma and Giannina, while Massimo, as a child and then adolescent, rubbed shoulders with the city’s idol on a daily basis.
“We were with Diego from Monday to Sunday,” said Vignati, looking at the photos of a time when the Argentine’s apartment on the heights of Posillipo, an upscale district of the city, was like his second home.
“He and his wife gave us all these things because they knew we were a lot of children, five boys and six girls,” he said.
“I was a ballboy during Maradona’s seven seasons. On Mondays, I went to play five-a-side, I did not go to school,” he said. “And on Tuesdays, sometimes he took me to the Napoli training session... ‘Diego, let’s go in the Ferrari!’”
For a long time, the wonders now on display in the Vignati cellar were locked away at the San Paolo.
“My father had two rooms,” said Vignati, whose second son is called Diego.
“One for all these memories and one for drinking a good Neapolitan coffee,” he said.
“After his death, I brought everything here, but the club knows that this place exists,” he said. “If they make a museum, I will always be ready. I hope everything can go back to the stadium, it was my father’s dream.”
During his last visit to Naples in 2017, Maradona fell into the arms of Lucia, Vignati’s mother, whom he calls his “Neapolitan mamma.”
“These are just beautiful memories,” she said. “He was kind, someone good, very passionate. When he left, it was as if I had lost a son.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but