Napoli’s Stadio San Paolo has officially been renamed after Argentina star Diego Maradona, just nine days after he passed away.
Maradona inspired Napoli to their only Scudetti, in 1987 and 1990, and scored 115 goals in 259 appearances for the Partenopei to achieve iconic status at the club.
Shortly after his death last month, club president Aurelio De Laurentiis announced plans to rename the stadium after Maradona and on Friday the Municipality of Naples confirmed that the change had come into immediate effect.
The bureaucratic process of renaming the stadium had been sped through by the city’s planning department, confirming it officially as the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
“With the resolution approved today, the stadium has been named after Diego Armando Maradona,” a press release from the Municipality of Naples read.
“Maradona embodied the symbol of redemption of a team who demonstrated that it is possible to get up and keep fighting, even in the darkest periods, while offering a message of hope to an entire city.
“It was not only the team of Napoli that won through his victories, but the whole city, which fully identified with him.”
Napoli paid tribute to Maradona in their Serie A clash with Roma on Sunday, following his passing from a heart attack in his native Argentina on 25 November.
