During his time in Naples, Maradona helped the team win several trophies, which led to the club retiring his number 10 jersey.

During this period, Napoli won two league titles (in 1987 and 1990), the 1987 Coppa Italia, the 1990 Supercoppa Italiana, and their only European trophy with the 1989 UEFA Cup.

Following his departure, however, Napoli struggled financially, and endured several relegations and a bankruptcy, prior to being re-founded in 2004 by film producer Aurelio De Laurentiis.

By attendance, Napoli have the fourth-largest fan base in Italy,[2] and were ranked as the fifth highest-earning football club in Serie A, with $182 million in revenue during the 2017–18 season.

[8] Naples' first match was a 3–2 win against the English crew of the boat Arabik with goals from William MacPherson, Michele Scafoglio and Léon Chaudoir.

[11] Each of the teams won a Prima Categoria southern Italian titles and therefore competed in the national semi-finals, Naples doing so in 1912–13 and Internazionale Napoli in 1913–14.

[14] Internaples were immediately enrolled in the top-flight Prima Divisione Lega Sud championship, as both Internazionale Napoli and Naples competed in that division pre-merger.

[15] Under the presidency of Giorgio Ascarelli, and likely under pressure from the new fascist government to "Italianize" the club,[15] Internaples changed its name to Associazione Calcio Napoli on 25 August 1926.

After a poor start, with a sole point in an entire championship,[17] Napoli was re-admitted to Serie A's forerunner, the Divisione Nazionale, by the Italian Football Federation ("FIGC"), and began to improve thanks in part to Paraguayan-born Attila Sallustro, who was the first fully fledged hero to the fans.

[citation needed] Despite erratic league form with highs and lows during this period, including multiple relegations and promotions, Napoli won their first major trophy when they beat SPAL to lift the Coppa Italia in 1962, with goals from Gianni Corelli and Pierluigi Ronzon.

Under the management of former player Bruno Pesaola, they won the Coppa delle Alpi[1] and were back among the elite in Serie A, with consistent top-five finishes.

[22] The club won their second Coppa Italia trophy in 1975–76, eliminating Milan and Fiorentina en route, before beating rivals Hellas Verona 4–0 in the finals.

With the attacking trio of Maradona, Bruno Giordano, and Careca (nicknamed MaGiCa), the 1986–87 season was the landmark in Napoli's history, becoming just the third Italian team to win the double after securing the Serie A title by three points and then beating Atalanta BC 4–0 to lift the Coppa Italia.

[1] Because a mainland Southern Italian team had never won the league before, this turned Maradona into a cultural, social and borderline religious icon for Neapolitans, which stretched beyond the realms of just football.

[1] Juventus, Bayern Munich and PAOK were defeated en route to the final, where Napoli beat VfB Stuttgart 5–4 on aggregate, with two goals from Careca and one each from Maradona, Ferrara and Alemão.

[1] However, this was surrounded by less auspicious circumstances as Napoli were awarded two points for a game, when in Bergamo, an Atalanta fan threw a 100 lira coin at Alemão's head.

It is a city that suffers the most unfair racism.The Stadio San Paolo was the only stadium during the competition where the Argentine national anthem was not jeered,[33] Maradona bowed to the Napoli fans at the end and his country went on to reach the finals.

[39] The following season, they secured promotion to Serie B and De Laurentiis brought back the club's history, restoring its name to Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli in May 2006.

Edinson Cavani finished as top scorer in the division with 29 goals, which resulted in him being sold to Paris Saint-Germain for a club-record fee of €64 million.

[citation needed] This year saw the breakout season for Dries Mertens who scored 34 goals in all competitions after he was moved from the left-wing to centre-forward following Milik's torn Anterior cruciate ligament.

[48][49] He managed the club to another second-place finish, but was sacked on 10 December 2019, following a poor run of results in the 2019–20 season which left them seventh in the table.

[50] On 14 June 2020, Dries Mertens became Napoli's all-time top scorer after scoring his 122nd goal in a Coppa Italia semi-finals match against Inter.

[citation needed] In the 2021–22 season, Luciano Spalletti replaced Gennaro Gattuso as head coach and led the team to the third place in Serie A, securing a Champions League spot for the azzurri after a two-years absence.

[55][56] Meanwhile, in the Champions League, Spalletti led them to the quarter-finals for the first time in their European history, where they were beaten 2–1 (1–0 away and 1–1 at home) by fellow Serie A side Milan.

As regards exclusively the championship, however, the honour goes to the Argentine footballer Roberto Sosa, the distinction of being the last to wear the 10 at the San Paolo and at the same time to score in the match against Frosinone on 30 April 2006.

It was originally meant to be derogatory, as the Neapolitan symbol is a rampant black horse,[65] but the club adopted the donkey as a mascot named "'O Ciuccio".

[74]In the morning we went to the San Paolo to warm up, Carlos (Tevez) was telling me about this stadium, but I've played for Barça so I said to myself, it can't be that big of a deal!

The now-infrequent derby with Savoia, the next largest club in Naples, was played for the first time 24 December 1939, during the knockout phase of the 1939–40 Coppa Italia, the score was 1–3 in favor of Napoli.

[77][78] As Napoli is one of the most important southern Italian teams, there are a lot of rivalries with several northern teams, like Milan, Internazionale, Atalanta BC and Hellas Verona[79] They also have a rivalry with the other Roman club Lazio,[citation needed] and contest the Derby Mezzogiorno (Midday Derby/Derby of Southern Italy) against Bari and Derby Bourbon (referencing the family that ruled the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies) against Foggia.

In the second last season before bankruptcy, the club was partially saved by the non-standard accounting practice of amortization after Silvio Berlusconi, owner of Milan and Prime Minister of Italy, introduced Italian Law 91/1981, Article 18B.