Stadio Diego Armando Maradona

Stadio Diego Armando Maradona – tickets for the loudest ground in Italy

Around 54,000 seats, a closed ring over two tiers, built in 1959 in the Fuorigrotta district west of the city centre. There are prettier stadiums in Italy. There is none louder.

Why it has two names

Until December 2020 this was the Stadio San Paolo. After the death of Diego Armando Maradona the city renamed it within days. Both names remain in circulation — search for San Paolo and you mean the same ground, and plenty of Neapolitans still call it that.

Maradona played here from 1984 to 1991 and won two league titles with Napoli (1987 and 1990) and the UEFA Cup in 1989 — the only honours of that scale the south of Italy has ever taken off the clubs of the north. That is why his face fills entire building walls here, and not only a museum.

Curva A and Curva B

The two ends behind the goals hold the organised support and are where the noise is made. The Distinti and Tribuna seats along the sides are calmer and give the better view of the football. A running track separates pitch from stands — the view is a little further back than in a pure football ground, and the acoustics more than make up for it.

Before kick-off: pizza, done properly

In Naples the food is part of the matchday, not a sideshow. A few hundred metres from the ground, in Fuorigrotta, Da Raffaele fratelli Pellone has been working since 1974 — known for pizza fritta, the fried version you will barely find outside the city.

An honest word on this: the famous pizzerias of the old town — the names in every guidebook — are five to seven kilometres away in the historic centre. They are an outing of their own, not a stop on the way to the stadium. If you want both, plan the evening before for it.

Getting there

Fuorigrotta is well served: metro line 2 stops at Campi Flegrei, line 6 and the Cumana railway at Mostra — all three a few minutes' walk from the ground. From Napoli Centrale station allow around 20 minutes.

Driving on a matchday is not advisable. Naples Capodichino airport is about twelve kilometres away.

On the surroundings: Fuorigrotta is a post-war residential and business district, not postcard Naples. Immediately next door lies the Mostra d'Oltremare, a large exhibition park with gardens — the pleasanter walk to the stadium goes straight through it.