Stadio Diego Armando Maradona

(Redirected fromStadio San Paolo)

This article is about the stadium in Naples, Italy. For the stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, seeEstadio Diego Armando Maradona.

Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, formerly known asStadio San Paolo,^[1]^[2] is a stadium in the westernFuorigrotta suburb ofNaples,Italy. It is the fourth largest football stadium in Italy,^[3] afterMilan'sSan Siro,Rome'sStadio Olimpico andBari'sSan Nicola. For the1960 Summer Olympics inRome, the stadium hosted thefootball preliminaries. It is currently used mostly forfootball matches and is the home stadium ofSSC Napoli. Constructed in 1959, the stadium was extensively renovated in 1989 for the1990 World Cup and again in 2018. The stadium currently accommodates 54,726 spectators, but in the past with terraced sections, the stadium took close to 90,000.^[4]

Stadio Diego Armando Maradona
Construction
UEFA

Former names	Stadio del Sole (1959–63) Stadio San Paolo (1963–2020)
Location	Naples,Campania,Italy
Coordinates	40°49′41″N14°11′35″E / 40.8280°N 14.1930°E /40.8280; 14.1930
Owner	Comune di Napoli
Executive suites	20
Capacity	54,726 (all-seater)
Record attendance	90,736 (Napoli vJuventus, 15 December 1974)
Field size	110 m × 68 m (361 ft × 223 ft)
Surface	Grass
Broke ground	1948
Built	1948–1959
Opened	6 December 1959 (1959-12-06)
Renovated	1989–1990, 2019
Architect	Carlo Cocchia, Luigi Corradi
Tenants
SSC Napoli (1959–present) Italy national football team (selected matches)

History

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This sectionneeds expansion with: Early history. You can help byadding to it.(December 2020)

Even thoughNapoli was in theSerie C1 during the 2005–06 season, Napoli achieved the feat of having the 3rd highest average home attendance in Italy for the season, with only twoSerie A clubs,AC Milan andInter Milan recording higher attendances. Napoli's final game of the season drew a crowd of 51,000 which now stands as a Serie C all-time record.

The stadium also hosted Italy'sEuro 2008 qualifier againstLithuania on 2 September 2006.

The opening ceremony of the2019 Summer Universiade

The stadium was renovated in preparation for the2019 Summer Universiade; this included replacing metal fencing with glass barriers and replacing seats. This means the stadium's capacity was reduced from 60,240 to 54,726.^[5] The stadium hosted the opening ceremony andathletics event.

Following the death of club legendDiego Maradona in November 2020, Naples' mayorLuigi de Magistris and Napoli presidentAurelio De Laurentiis proposed renaming the stadium to "Stadio Diego Armando Maradona", and on December 4, 2020, the proposal was passed by the city council.^[2]

Events

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1990 FIFA World Cup

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An external view with the covering installed for the 1990 FIFA World Cup

The stadium was one of the venues of the1990 FIFA World Cup, and held five matches. The first two wereArgentina’s Group B matches: the first was againstSoviet Union on 13 June winning 2–0, and the second was againstRomania on 18 June ending in a 1–1 draw. The next two wereCameroon matches: the first was a Round of 16 match againstColombia on 23 June winning 2–1 after extra time, and the second was a Quarter-finals match againstEngland on 1 July losing 3–2 after extra time.

The fifth and last was the semi-final between Argentina andItaly on 3 July. Argentina's superstarDiego Maradona, who played for Naples's Italian 1st division team and was a hero to their supporters, asked Napoli fans to cheer for Argentina. The Napolitifosi responded by hanging a giant flag in their "curva" of the stadium saying "Maradona, Naples loves you, but Italy is our homeland".^[6] Maradona later said he was touched that Napoli was the only stadium during that World Cup where the Argentinian national anthem was not jeered. The match finished 1–1 after extra time. A penalty shoot-out ensued, with Argentina winning and Maradona scoring one of his side's penalties.