Ludden - Maradona: Once Upon a Time in Naples: (2018 New Edition)

DIEGO MARADONA

ONCE UPON A

TIME IN NAPLES

(2018 New Edition)

JOHN LUDDEN

JOHN LUDDEN

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

For Matthew

My treasure of San Gennaro

In a city where the devil would have needed bodyguards,

Maradona became bigger than God himself. A perfect storm.

Our Maradona
Who Takes the Field
We Have Hallowed Thy Name
Thy Kingdom is Napoli
Lead us Not Into Disappointment
But Deliver Unto Us the Title
Amen

A Naples prayer

Its five oclock in the morning and Diego Maradona and

his entourage tumble drunkenly out of a restaurant. Hes

celebrating after leading Napoli to a memorable victory

over Juventus. Diego is dancing and singing loud in the

street as the others cheer him along. Nearby, in a tenement

building an angry old woman who has been awoken by

the noise opens her window, leans down and tells him in

no uncertain terms to shut up. Who the hell do you think

you are she says. The king of Naples? Maradona looks

up at her and begins to sing his name like the most fanatical

tifosi on the San Paolo terraces. Im Maradooooona! The

old woman suddenly recognises him. She claps her hands, smiles

wide and blows Diego a big, long kiss.

Welcome to Naples!

Naples today and still Diegos city:

2018: Painted by artist Jorit Agoch.

Once Upon a Time in Naples is the basis for the Diego Maradona

film directed by the Oscar winning Asif Kapadia and produced

by Paul Martin and James Gay Rees.

CHAPTERS

THE STORY OF THE BOOK THAT REFUSED TO DIE

INTRODUCTION

VESUVIO ERUPTS

C1: IN THE DAYS BEFORE

C2: THE CORONATION

C3: LAVATEVI

C4: BADLANDS

C5: EL PIBE DE ORO

C6: IRREVERSIBLE SUNRISE

C7: CROWNS OF THORNS

C8: LOATHING SUPREME

C9: CRISTINA

C10: MEXICAN DAZE

C11: KING OF THE WORLD

C12: CAPTAIN

C13: TOUCHING HEAVEN

C14: BELLA GIORNATA

C15: MAGICA

C16: FATTACCIO

C17: ENDGAME

C18: STATE OF GRACE

C19: ENCORE

C20: NAPLES LAST STAND

C21: REBELLION

C22: SNAKEBITE

C23: EPITAPH

C24: RETURN OF THE KING

C25: A LIFE TRULY LIVED

FIFTY QUOTES ON DIEGO ARMANDO MARADONA

THE STORY OF THE BOOK

THAT REFUSED TO DIE:

Once Upon a Time in Naples was originally published 2005, by Parrswood Press in Manchester. It was a small outfit and they were based in a converted church with their office being in the original confessional box. Looking back now maybe there was someone from a high keeping an eye on this book, for its been an extraordinary journey and one set to reach a pinnacle this summer when the Oscar winning Director Asif Kapadia, releases his film MARADONA. Originally based on Once Upon a Time in Naples. Being a huge lover of Naples, football and gangster movies, then this heady concoction of a cocaine fuelled Diego Maradona and seven years in my favourite city making Neapolitan dreams come true, whilst partying with the Camorra. Throw in a moody volcano, match-fixing, drugs, murder, corruption and a patron saint San Gennaro that comes alive twice a year to bless this crazy, if beautiful place.

How could I possibly not enjoy penning such a tale?

When originally writing I envisaged the imaginary canvas of a Sergio Leone movie landscape coming alive with my words. The music I listened to throughout was also vitally important to set the mood. Mostly, the wonderful Italian composer Ennio Morricone and the one of whom it was said, If God ever does return to earth then he will sing like this man. Andrea Bocelli. For me the book needed a soundtrack to die for. Bocellis, Conte te Partiro , as from a crystal blue Neapolitan sky, Maradonas helicopter first flies over a packed San Paolo stadium awaiting his arrival back on 5th July 1984. Whilst in the distance Mount Vesuvio loomed large...

Once Upon a Time in Naples was my second book published. The first, four years previously was Fields of Fire: The Greatest Football Matches Ever, by Mainstream Publishing in Edinburgh. The date it went in the shops, 11th September 2001. I remember signing copies in the Manchester Printworks when news broke and we spent the rest of the day in a pub huddled with people convinced this was the end of the world. In that initial book was a chapter on Maradona and Naples which basically became expanded from 3000 words into the now new re-released version of 130,000. Back then, it was a struggle to find stuff to go in, for so little was available, even online. Whilst this time around has been more a case of what to leave out. The latest edition has 35,000 extra words and a plethora of new information and stories. A labour of love.

Hopefully, Ive done it real justice.

In the beginning any pipe dreams I had of giving my day job up and writing full time on release of Once Upon a Time, due to huge popular demand and massive sales

(I wished!), swiftly vanished. Within a month of it appearing on the bookshelves and online, the publisher went bust and my books with it. Sold off to pay his debts. Two thousand copies auctioned off. I sincerely never earned a penny off it back then. Luckily, I retained authors rights, but what good was that when the book I had the rights to had disappeared into thin air? There were highlights, amongst them being The Independents sports book of the week for three weeks on the run and keeping Stephen Gerrard off top spot was nice. He got there in the end. Also, a certain review which compared the book to my all-time favourite film, Once Upon a Time in America.

Oh no! Not another book about Diego Maradona, this time about the seven incident-packed years he spent at Naples, during which he led them to the Serie A title? Ho, hum, you might think, as I did before embarking on the first chapter, but I was soon engrossed. John Ludden has created that rarity among the sporting genre: a genuine page-turner which rates among the best sports books I've read all year. The book maintains a cracking pace throughout, with Ludden frequently infusing his tale with religious imagery, a constant, if unsubtle, reminder of the diminutive midfielder's status among his newly-discovered Neapolitan family. From the moment he arrives in Naples by helicopter "like an angel descending from heaven", Maradona came as close to a footballing deity as any player ever has. Lovingly embraced at first by all quarters of a city "where the devil would have needed a bodyguard", once he casts out a pregnant Cristina Sinagra, the locals begin to cast doubt on his true character and his previously divine mask begins to slip. But this is not an elongated tabloid romp. From the outset, Ludden builds tension and excitement into each facet of Maradona's complicated Neapolitan foray, including Napoli's unlikely surge for the Scudetto, the Italian title. In the early 1980s, Napoli's president of fourteen years, Corrado Ferlaino, was under enormous pressure to inject style, a presence, into his club which would finally allow it to challenge Italian football's northern dominance. The author's description of Naples as a dirty, poor, corrupt, grudge-bearing metropolis where gangsters have ultimate control has presumably not been sanctioned by the city's tourist board. Yet this background is important to Ludden's tale as it was, he suggests, crucial in convincing Maradona, who hailed from a similar background, to leave the sophistication of Barcelona for the toe of Italy.