Napoli success: to play to make someone happy

The quality that Napoli expressed to win the Scudetto has been widely analyzed in match commentaries. However, it is my impression that the success was also determined by two other factors that Spalletti wanted to introduce that valued personal aspects that are important to every human being and that relate to the need for happiness and a sense of belonging.

In fact, he said, “We have to make someone happy in order to be happy people. From a personal point of view it’s the family, from a professional point of view it’s our fans, we don’t give a damn about individual numbers and who scores goals, we have to bring a team and group achievement to our city that makes the fans feel proud of us. We have to do something for the public’s affection for our jersey.”

On the other hand, how can you not espouse this approach to soccer in a city that named its stadium after Maradona, a player who fully represented soccer as the joy and bond of belonging to this team and Naples. So, of course you play to win but you win because you want to be happy and make happy. This is no small step, because you have to be aware of how to play to achieve this twofold goal, which combines the result with the enthusiasm born of playing your game. Achieving this goal was not easy, because we know that soccer is a very emotional sport. Because of the goal, which is a rare event, it is no coincidence that the three most usual scores in Serie A in order of frequency are 1-1, 2-1 and 1-0. It only takes one episode to change the fate of a game. This is not the case in other team sports such as volleyball and basketball where about every minute a point is awarded.

On this basis, to prevent the high level of emotionality from becoming a negative load of impulsiveness and foul play for teams, it was necessary for it to find its outlet in the joy that the game can convey. When we use words like, “we are going to the field to have fun,” it does not mean that we are going on a jaunt; it is not a sign of superficiality. Instead, it implies a desire to fully experience the pleasure of the challenge, namely the joy of doing as well as possible in difficult moments what one has prepared for.