Diego Armando Maradona Stadium - Naples
The Diego Armando Maradona stadium is an Italian multipurpose sports facility in Naples. It is located in Fuorigrotta, a district of the X Municipality. Equipped with multipurpose gyms, spaces for martial arts and a basketball court, it has hosted the internal football matches of Napoli since the inauguration.
Originally called the Stadio del Sole, it was renamed the San Paolo stadium in 1963. On 4 December 2020 the Municipality of Naples named the stadium after the former Napoli captain, Diego Armando Maradona, who died the previous 25 November.
Built in the fifties of the twentieth century in brutalist style to a project by the architect Carlo Cocchia, it was, at the time of its construction, one of the most popular stadiums on the international scene, as well as the largest in Italy with its 85 012 seats . Following the restructuring for Italia '90, the capacity increased to 72810 seats. The unavailability of the third ring starting from the 2005-06 season resulted in a reduction to 60,240 spectators. In 2018-19, in anticipation of the aforementioned Universiade, the facility underwent a profound restyling, which further reduced its capacity, reaching 54726 spectators.
Included among the venues of the 1960 Olympic soccer tournament, two European soccer tournaments (in 1968 and 1980) and the 1990 soccer world cup, it also hosted the 1963 Mediterranean Games and the 2019 Universiade.