How Diego Maradona Fueled the Rise of Naples’ Camorra
49:47 Share

Memorial Day savings are here at The Home Depot. So take your kitchen to the next level with up to 35% off, plus up to an extra $450 off select appliances like LG. Plan your get-togethers with an LG refrigerator you can count on for years to come at The Home Depot. And with the connected ThinQ app, you'll know if the door is left open and when to change the filter. Spend less time worrying this Memorial Day with savings on LG, America's most reliable appliance brand at The Home Depot.

Offer valid May 15th through June 4th. U.S. only. See store or online for details. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task, unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website to marketing to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into...

Sign up for your $1 per month trial at shopify.com slash special offer. It's 3.30 a.m. on Jan 7, 1991, in a small gas-heated home in Naples' ancient Spanish Quarter. A phone rings. A 46-year-old woman wakes and picks up the receiver. A man's voice, calm, collected, at the end of the line. Diego gave me this number, he says, for two women.

She doesn't wait a beat. A simple response: "Yes." "Good women, mind you." He butts in. "We want to meet in the Via Manzoni, by the Ironi. A piano bar. A regular haunt. Not a problem." "Is Diego there?" she asks. "You want to speak to him?" She does. "I want to speak," she says, "to Maradona." "You can call him at Vincenzo's," he tells her.

Of course he's up. Maradona is always up. Always a Vincenzo's. Especially on a Sunday night after a match. He might even be going till Wednesday. She hangs up. Eight minutes later, the phone rings again. A different voice. She knows who. Do you know who they are? She asked the world's most famous footballer. Perhaps at this point, the most famous sportsman in the world. They're the ones from yesterday. I get it. Yes, Maradona replies. He's gruff, despondent.

I was up at Italo's this morning. She knows who Italo is too. Everybody does. He's Naples' so-called Minister of Garbage. Running a billion dollar a year trash collecting empire. Illegal, of course. Italo's a member of the Camorra. The feared underworld who rule Naples' surrounding Campania region. And he doesn't just collect. He delivers too. Call girls and cocaine. To venues like the Irony.

A cramped boutique hotel in the city center. And there are few better customers than the king of Naples himself. The man whose name is roared by tens of thousands of Neapolitans on Sundays and the occasional Mezzogiorno. The man for whom they'll go into battle. The man who won his nation's second World Cup and delivered Napoli their first ever league title after more than 60 years. "Pronto," says the woman. "Listen, I'll give you the address.

He tells her again, jittery now. "Is it the Ironi? Will around 4 am be okay?" she asks him. "Okay," he says. "It's 20 minutes. It'll have to do." "But wait," she says. "Before you go, I want you to say hello to my little boy." A child grabs the phone. His name is Cristino. He wants to salute his hero, the boy from the Buenos Aires slums with feet of gold, Diego. But Diego, the innocent, lovable wunderkind, he left Naples long ago.

All that's left is Maradona, the brand, the brat, the millionaire prima donna, hanging on to greatness by a thread or a thin white line. And with this short, sad conversation, he sealed his fate forever. Because it's not just the madam or Cristina on the call. Controlled telephone number 394, as the cops will later call it.

This is part of one of the most spectacular things Italy and the sporting world has ever seen. Welcome to the Underworld Podcast.

Hello and welcome to the weekly podcast and ill-advised video experience where two journalists who have traveled the world tell stories about the good, bad and ugly of global organized crime. I am Sean Williams in Wellington, New Zealand and I'm joined as always by my trusted amigo, my Sancho Panza, my maid Marian, Danny Gold in New York City. There's a Robin Hood reference within five minutes. It's got to be a reference. You are a strange bird, Williams.

Yes, I know, I know. I am very clever and intellectual, as you can see from the small pile of books on the desk behind me. And given I'm moving to Argentina in under a year from now, I decided to research a show about its most famous son. That is, of course, King Diego Armando Maradona, who passed away in 2020, aged just 60, which, if you know how he lived, is actually a pretty decent run.

As the cold open suggests, today's episode is going to dive into Maradona's move from SSC Napoli in 1984, possibly the most famous football transfer in history, corrupt from the very start, and how the Argentine legend gave the club the greatest era in its history, but it came at a huge cost to the clubs, the fans, the city, Naples underworld, the Camorra, and Maradona himself.

It's a wild story. If you've seen the 2019 movie, Diego Maradona, you'll know a bit of it, but there is tons more besides, not least in John Luddens book, Once Upon a Time in Naples. I mean, can you tell that I really enjoyed doing this one? Yeah, I mean, I can, but how many organized crime stories are there involving football that one can can actually do? I mean, I guess we're going to

We're gonna find out together, but uh, we are no shadow. Let's hold hands shout out to my boys and leads though Big big winning leads. Congrats to them, dude. I didn't expect that one And you might have eagle-eyed of you may have already seen that I'm wearing a of the Nets here 2022 show which is one of the most just the prettiest kit that's been bought out in a while, but

Yeah, anyway, I guess I'm actually repping the people that Maradona was against, but who cares? It's all Italian football. It's all fun. Anyway, I'm going to split this one into two parts. Actually, today we're going to tell the story of Maradona and the mob all the way up to the 1986 World Cup when he truly becomes a global superstar.

And then part two is going to detail his fall from grace. A scandalous pregnancy, a prostitution ring, Scarface-level mountains of blow, the 1991 Sting murders, mafia, mega trials. Maradona's unlikely comeback in his late, unlikely cameo as manager of Culiacan's Dorados de Sinaloa. I mean, I wonder if you can tell why that matchup was doomed. Wait, hold on. He...

He managed a team Diego Maradona the guy most famous guy who loved cocaine ever Managed the team in Sinaloa. Yes Yeah, there is actually a Netflix show about it called Maradona in Mexico, which is it's okay But yeah, it's like nonfiction or no not fiction. It follows him. It's like crazy this guy his life kind of spans the old and the new worlds of football is really weird actually seeing so much stuff about him, but

Yeah, we are going to explore some of the current connections in that show too between the Camorra and Napoli and Italian gangsters with pro football. As you might have thought already, there is a lot of that and it is all just like out there. Balls to the wall. Incredible. But before we get into all of that, a quick shout out to sign up to our Patreon if you haven't already. Bonus interviews, roundup shows, notes, reading lists, ad-free shows.

um yeah am i missing anything danny i didn't ask how you're doing either that's very rude of me uh you know email us at um the underworld podcast at gmail.com and you can buy the t-shirts and other nice things at underworldpod.com you click on the merch button there uh what else me uh you know nothing nothing good nothing good nothing good okay uh well i'll give you a rest for this one by the way before we start um

I know a lot of people listening or sadly watching this show are not going to give a tuppany F about football or Napoli or Maradona. And I can assure you guys there is plenty here for you besides that. As much as I'd like to wang on for hours about tactics and the history of specific league titles or any of that stuff, we promise you high crime and I am going to deliver you just that, not least this shirt. But as you may have guessed, this story doesn't start in 1991 at all. But,

But back in 1983, and I'm not talking about the crazy political world we're living in now. I don't even get that. Yeah, I don't know either. Sometimes the stuff that I'm coming out with, just... I mean, you can't hit them all, you know? I'm playing five, maybe even six D chess here, guys. Anyway, attacker Diego Armando Maradona, a kid from a Buenos Aires slum. He is lighting up the football world at this time.

He is 22 years old. He's been at Spanish giants Barcelona for two seasons, having arrived from hometown legends Boca Juniors from a world record 7.3 million bucks in 1982. He's already the biggest star on the planet and rumors are swirling that he's living large in the Catalan capital. Fast cars, all-nighters, women left and right, sometimes even cocaine, which is beginning to flood Western Europe at this point.

And on the pitch, because he's so much better than everyone else, he's getting the absolute snot kicked out of him. I mean, this is not an era of dives and crybabies and VAR. It is cut up turfs and defenders built like dockers. Few more than Andoni Goekoachea, I remember saying that right, of Bilbao, who on September 24, 1983, dishes out a horror tackle which leaves Maradona with two screws in his ankle.

Goy Koachia, aka the butcher of Bill Bell, actually keeps the boot from that night in a glass case. This is football in the early 80s. So is it not like hockey? Like, do they not have enforcers on a team who, you know, are there to protect the star? Just like, you know, they're like, you go after their guy. Yeah, actually, in Italy, they kind of did back in the day. There are a few players like Franco Borezzi who are famous for it, but...

Yeah, that is Italy. I didn't really know that Spain was this rough back then. But yeah, a guy keeping the boot that nearly ended the career of Maldonian in his house is...

Pretty rough stuff. And I don't know if that's something to be proud of, but playing pro football is anyway. Maradona has the press at his door each day in Spain. His hectic private life is being spilled all over the tabloids. And his career, of course, has almost been ended from tackles best left in a museum or a glass cabinet. He is fed up with Spain. And it seems as if Barcelona is getting pretty fed up with him, too.

Club president Josep Nunez, a construction honcho, is beginning to hear reports that his staff forward is indulging in cocaine-fueled orgies with cool girls in a hotel suite folks nicknamed Dodge City, right at a time when drugs are becoming a big problem in Spain. In fact, there's a big public service campaign against narcotics underway at exactly that moment, headed up by, yes, you guessed it, Diego Armando Maradona.

This is too much for Nunez. He and manager Terry Venables put the word out. Maradona is for sale. And who steps up? Italian club Napoli. Now, of course, there's a cultural element to this. Almost two thirds of Argentines are Italian and a large number of Politeños or folks from Buenos Aires have their roots rather in Campania.

and Societa Sportiva Calcio or SSC Napoli, they're a big team. Their stadium, the San Paolo, holds almost 90,000 spectators and they're the only top tier side in a city of around a million people.

But at this point, they are bad. They've never won Serie A, the National League, and they've only won two cups since their foundation in 1926. In the 1983-84 season, they finished 11th of 16 sides, just a point above relegation. And Napoli's hardened fans, the ultras, they're not afraid to let their president, who is another construction magnate, this time named Corrado Fellaino, know precisely what they think.

Fires are lit on the terraces, fights break out between ultras and cops, tear gas fills the stands. At a game against Roma, a small plane flies over the San Paolo with a simple message written on a banner. "Felaino fa fanculo." I'll leave you to translate that one. Even more worrying is when a gang of assailants on Vespa scooters hurls a homemade explosive into the garden of Fellaino's villa.

At the same time, then another one goes off at the San Paolo's ticket office. See, New York, it's just three guys named Tony, Big Tony, Little Tony, and Regular Tony. They go in Acura Legend, and they drive by John Mara's house, and they throw empty bottles of Corona at his head, and they yell about how he has to give Tommy DeVito another chance. I like that, actually. That sounds great. It can work. We'll see what happens this season.

Yeah, not good as far as I understand. But yeah, Napoli and Naples are a club and city despised by huge swathes of Italians as dirty, crime-ridden and corrupt. And in Foligno, a man rumoured to have made his millions with the consent of the Camorra, they're not entirely wrong.

On November 23rd 1980 a huge earthquake had struck the region of the Alpina just outside Naples killing more than 2,400 people and leaving a quarter of a million people homeless. Many of the buildings that collapsed had themselves been built on profiteering shoe strings by Camorra backed firms but in the rubble the group spots a chance to make even more money this time off the backs of those left destitute.

Camoristi steal an estimated 6.4 billion of the 40 billion dollars the Italian government allocates to the rebuild while another 20 billion is lost to contracting millionaires and 4 billion is spent on political bribes only around a quarter of the full amount is spent on victims needs which tells you a lot about the level of graft back then writes John Ludden quote no

No sooner had the rehousing products begun than the lead engineer in charge was shot for refusing to accept a payoff. All the while, the homeless were left with no option but to pay the Camorra protection money for the ramshackle dwellings they were forced to live in. Now, Irapina is really a pivotal moment for the Camorra. The group goes back to the 17th century, we've done some other stuff on that, but its bread and butter post-war is black market cigarettes.

By this point, they've long since ventured into drugs, procured from sellers in the Balkans, Corsica, Sicily, North Africa, and even sometimes further afield. And now they're into construction, state contracts, gun running, and smuggling of all stripes. And they're an unpredictable, violent outfit.

Unlike the Mafia, which is controlled by a few leading families, the Camorra, like the Andrangheta in nearby Calabria, is an uneasy alliance of over five dozen clans, who tend to fall in line with whomever is willing to pull the most triggers, or strike fear into the hearts of the most citizens.

Shopkeepers, bus drivers and politicians are fearful of few things more than the visit of a hot-headed Camorra henchman or guapo who would often be a kid with nothing but a point to prove and a gun in his hand. Did we, I think we did do an episode on the Camorra, the origin of the Camorra, no?

It might have been like way back in like 19, I was going to say 1920. It feels that long, 2020. Yeah. Yeah, we have done this, right? Let us know if we've done an episode on the Kimura. We definitely have. There's no way we'd let the Kimura not be the focus of an episode. Have you read Saviano's book? I have. Yeah, that's so good, man. Oh my God.

Among these clans, few are feared and respected more than the Giulianos, a family from the slums of Forcella, a labyrinthine corner of Naples' Spanish Quarter. Their reign begins with Pio Vittorio Giuliano.

born 1926, who grows up in the rubble of post-war Naples, a place of poverty, joblessness, and chaos that the Allies have bombed around 200 times. I think I've definitely mentioned it before, but the book Naples 44, which is about...

Occupy Naples in 1944 is, you know, it's like 110 pages, but it's incredible. It will like paint a world for you. It's fantastic. Definitely read that. Yeah, I haven't read it, but I really want to do that. It came up a lot of times researching this as well. Yeah, it's an incredible book. Young Vittorio has to toughen up quick in this environment and he survives as a scognizzo, I think that's how you say, or street kid, and he hears crazy tales from Forcellas Guappi.

Pretty soon, Vittorio has gathered a small group of his own urchins, and they're making a living stealing contraband from ships docked at Naples' huge port. They get good at this, in fact, until Vittorio insults a policeman aged 19 and lands himself behind the bars. For the cops, it's a good chance to get another young gangster off the streets, but it's short-sighted, a false economy.

Because there's no place better to teach a young man the true ways of the Camorra than a stint in Naples' filthy, overcrowded prisons.

Among his release a few months later, Vittorio expands his criminal enterprise from stolen cigarettes, a Camorristi staple, into prostitution, gambling and protection rackets. Forchella, smack bang in the center of Naples' tourist-friendly heart, has been known as the Casbah since wartime, such as it's been a place for the city's flourishing black market.

and the Giulianos make an outwardly nondescript three-story house called the "Vitco" or the "Viccio della Pace" I think that's how you say the C's in Italian, their nerve center. Inside the building is palatial and neighbors take to calling it the "Casino Forchella". They recruit directly from the Napoli Ultras, whether to collect pizza from local businesses, unload gear from the docks, or even kill rival clan members.

And they get deep into the corrupt world of Totonero. This is a state-run pause, the only legal form of football gambling in Italy, allowed only because punters are able to make parlays on the entire weekend's fixtures, all 13 of them, to avoid the potential for single-match fixing.

But of course, that doesn't stop enterprising crooks trying to fix the league, not least in Naples, and we're going to get into that a way lot more in part two of this show. Okay, so let me repeat this back to you, and you tell me if I have this accurate. The only thing you can bet on there is...

is state-run pools that feature 13-game parlays. Yes. And they do this because everything is so corrupt, they figure no one can fix 13 games. That is exactly correct. Does anyone ever win a 13-game parlay? That's incredible. And then the Kimura actually find a way to fix it anyway.

Well, we'll find out in part two of this show. This is without a doubt the best thing I've ever heard. I'm going to make a 13-person home run bat parlay right now while you keep talking. I'm so inspired. I guess if any sport you're going to be able to do that, it's probably baseball or cricket, I guess. Home run parlay is the way to go. Anyway, sorry, continue. Oh, man. Yeah, go Schwarber and go Aaron Judge. See?

The NBA playoffs are here, and I'm getting my bets in on FanDuel. Talk to me, Chuck GPT. What do you know? All sorts of interesting stuff. Even Charles Barkley's greatest fear. Hey, nobody needs to know that. New customers bet $5 to get 200 in bonus bets if you win. FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook.

21 plus and present in Illinois. Must be first online real money wager. $5 deposit required. Bonus issued is non-withdrawable bonus pass that expires seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See full terms at fanduel.com slash sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. If you're a lineman in charge of keeping the lights on, Grainger understands that you go to great lengths and sometimes heights to ensure the power is always flowing.

which is why you can count on Grainger for professional grade products and next day delivery. So you have everything you need to get the job done. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done. Business owners, quick question. When someone hears your phone number, does it stand out or does it just sound like a bunch of numbers, a bunch of, you know, just some jumble that no one's going to remember?

Let's fix that with Ring Boost, the go-to service for custom phone numbers that make your business stand out. Whether you're running a small business or scaling something big, the right number makes it ridiculously easy for customers to remember you and actually call. You can get a local number to connect with a regional audience. You can also get a number like 1-800-HOME-CARE or 833-ROOFERS.

There's plenty of options for every industry. You know, if you're a plumber and your number ends in like four, nine, five, seven, no one's going to remember that. But if your number ends in 888-LEAK,

Somebody is going to remember that and they're going to call. Here's the best part. Super affordable, super easy, and it can help drive more calls to your business, more trust. So if you're ready to sound like the business people want to call, head over to ringboost.com and use promo code underworld for an exclusive discount. That's ringboost.com, promo code underworld, ring boost, because voice matters.

Yeah, Don Vittorio. He has 11 kids, because of course he does, and he cedes control of his empire to his eldest son Luigi in the 1970s. Luigi then branches the clan into narcotics, mostly heroin, marijuana and cocaine, and it's not unheard of for Giuliano Guappi to unload crates of Uzi submachine guns, grenades or AK-47s off the docks too.

He continues the clan's association with Napoli and like pretty much all Camoristi, he's a fan of the team too. So when club president Folaino starts mentioning Maradona's name in the press, Luigi and all of Naples underworld see dollar signs or lira signs, whatever they look like. Well, we're dashing it. I don't know what comes next, though, is pretty crazy and a big fat sign of criminal things to come.

Fileno makes the rookie mistake of coming out in public and telling Napoli fans he's about to sign the world's best player. So naturally, Barcelona just hike the asking fee. They've got him over a barrel.

Fileno can't afford the $10.5 million the Catalans are demanding, by a country mile then, the world record. Naples is one of Europe's poorest cities, with sky-high unemployment, but for Fileno, already despised, it's shit or bust. So he goes public again, and he asks Neapolitans to bankroll the move. It's either that, he says, or Maradona will go to fierce rivals Juventus or Turin, the current league title holders.

Now, most of Italy's powerhouse football clubs are based in the economically strong north. Juventus, Torino, Internazionale, Milan, Genoa, Sampdoria, Verona, sometimes Venezia, as you can see here. And they regularly unfurl banners decrying Neapolitans as unwashed or peasants. You know, Sean, in Napoli, a lot of people are not so happy for Columbus because he was from Genoa.

The north of Italy always have the money and the power. They punished the south since hundreds of years. Even today, they put up their nose at us like we peasants. I ate to the north.

Yes. Come on. Was that a reference to We Know What? Yeah, of course, dude. I slipped one in the last episode, too. You're not noticing anything anymore. Oh, man. It's been a while. I've watched too many shows. You need a rewatch, dude. You need a rewatch because this is disappointing me. Yeah, I'm very sorry. I'm so sorry. Yeah. Please apologize to our listeners.

Yeah, well, they'll get it. Whatever. I'm British. They can just show me some more for being from England. Anyway, sewer of Italy reads one favorite banner. Well, another declares the Napoli ultra is the country's quote Africans. That's a that's their way of saying they're bad. By the way, they are pretty racist.

And this goes way back, by the way. Naples rallied against fascism in the 30s and was enough of a thorn in Mussolini's side that during Allied bombing campaigns, he demanded that the city's air raid sirens be played at random times so residents wouldn't know when the bombs were actually falling and therefore they were lambs to the slaughter. And this is the city of Pompeii, Vesuvius, which still smoulders, very much active on the city's edge.

There is a saying in Naples which sums up this devil-may-care attitude. A toast. To Vesuvio. Fuck it. One day, he'll get us all. That kind of rules, man. Southern Italy. Southern Italians, man. They got some good toasts, some good life mottos, you know? Yeah, I mean, just take me back to Sicily, man. Anytime. It's the best place on earth. Anyway, Neapolitans know Northern Italians hate them, and they don't care. That is a reference to Millwall, who...

Salvation

So if it's a choice between Napoli or Juventus getting Maradona, Neapolitans turn out their pockets. There are queues of people outside Bank of Naples offices across the city, monitored of course by eagle-eyed Camorra guapi.

And by the summer of 1984, the charity, or mass extortion, it works. On June 30 that year, aboard Feleno's luxury yacht moored off the island of Capri, Diego Maradona puts pen to paper on the most lucrative contract in football history. He wants, quote, peace, he says, but above all, respect.

A local newspaper declares soon after, quote, Naples does not have a mayor, houses, schools, buses, employment or sanitation, but none of this now matters because we have Maradona. The whole thing is a shakedown from day one. And below the headlines, there's another guy making his fortune from all of this. Jorge Saita-Spila, Maradona's madcap agent.

Theirs is a strange match, but a really close one. Maradona, the rough and tumble kid from the slums, dark skinned, who is called a "sudaca", a racist term for an indigenous Argentine. Now an elegant superstar, wanted by the world. And Saita Spiller, I think I'm saying that right. A podgy, middle class Jewish kid from uptown Buenos Aires, walks with a limp from childhood polio and prone to long bouts of depression.

He's known Diego since watching him play, age 14, and they've been friends ever since. Maradona spending many a night at Jorge's fancy home to escape his family's probation, talking to the wee hours about success, fame, and women. Which is useful, given that Diego is the Maradona family breadwinner from his late teens, trusting Jorge with their financial security.

When Maradona signed to Barcelona, then Napoli, Saita Spiller gets his percentage. He's rich too, but with Diego, things are never quite so simple. Writes Ludden quote, For a while, Maradona would be handed a crown and given king status, his every wish granted. Waltzing with the dark angels of the Neapolitan night, without ever knowing that all along he was dancing in the devil's shade. Little more than a puppet dangling on a gangster's string.

To give you an idea how wild this transfer is, it's like, I don't know, Kylian Mbappe signing for Toulouse or Harry Kane going to Norwich. I mean, look, guys, I'm old. I don't follow football like I used to. But indulgent sidebar, Maradona to Napoli isn't even the craziest transfer of the early 80s. That title belongs to Danish striker Alan Simonson, who in 1982, having just become the European Footballer of the Year...

i.e. the best player in the world, goes from Barcelona to my own club, Chon Athletic. And actually, it's directly to do with Maradona. So it's totally relevant to this episode, I promise. And if you don't like listening to it, just skip forward a couple of things on that little Spotify button. But when the Argentine goes to Catalonia, it means Simonson will be only one of two foreign stars that the club are allowed to field at any one time. So Simonson, a legend at his very peak,

is forced to duke it out with German Bernd Schuster and Maradona, he's insulted and tired, of course, of the Spanish media. So he moves to lowly Charlton, broken in England's second division,

And actually, after a season, they can't afford his wages and he moves to his home club, Vela. So I guess I did pledge not to go too deep into football stuff, but Charlton mentioned, so I don't care. Yeah, cool, dude. Thanks for getting our entire American fan base to just turn this off. Great job. Yeah, anyway, back to soccer, guys. It's 1984. Maradona's just signed for Napoli. And soon after, Foligno is holding a triumphal press conference parading about his new star. But it doesn't go smoothly.

One of the reporters stands up to ask a question. "I would like to know if Maradona knows what the Camorra is," he says. "And if he knows that the Camorra's money is everywhere here, even in football." A brief silence. Then Foligno explodes in anger. "How dare the reporter ask such a question," he refrains. And he signals for security to escort the young man off the premises. Maradona just smiles blithely through the presser. Then he gets to work.

I didn't know Naples. I didn't know Italy, he says later. But there wasn't another team that would buy me. I asked for a house and I got an apartment. I asked for a Ferrari and I got a Fiat. Everything was downgraded.

The next season, Napoli play well. Not great, but well, finishing a respectable eighth with Maradona scoring 14 goals and compatriot Daniel Bertone bagging 11. They even manage a 0-0 draw at Juventus, while surprise side Hellas Verona win their first and only league title.

Maradona though, he's on a princely sum and he's already the love of the Napoli ultras. The right people hate him too. Fans at Milan's San Siro stadium unfurl a banner telling the star to quote, suck on a banana, which, well yeah, they're racist, I told you that already. Privately however, the 25-year-old star has just carried on where he left off at Dodge City in Barcelona.

Only this time, his debauchery is playing out at Naples Hotel Royale, where he's convinced Foligno to put him up for the year. It's hardly a dump. Hundreds of women pass through the doors of the players' suite, as do boatloads of liquor and cocaine, supplied, of course, by the Camorra.

One of those is Carmine Giuliano, or Carmine, but I'm going to call him Carmine because, yeah, I feel like it's one of those words that you just have to say in the English accent. A handsome member of the Giuliano clan. One night early on, Maradona goes for dinner with them. It all looked like something out of The Untouchables. Al Capone, he later says.

So we're there eating and Carmine said to me, any problem you have is also my problem. And he said he would protect us in Naples. For me, it was all new, like being in a movie. Later on, Maradona moves into an apartment in the clifftop district of Polisipo, alongside corrupt politicians and leaders of the very same Camorra clans who are cozying up to him and plying him with blow.

Casino Forchella might be the clan's headquarters, but its influence is everywhere. And Carmine, nicknamed Il Leone, the lion, is a born striver, ruthless and darkly manipulative. Here's Ludden again, quote, With Neapolitans keen to be parted from their cash for anything with the player's name emblazoned upon it, the gangs cleaned up. For as blessed Diego Maradona was with his talents, the Camorra were equally gifted in what they did.

Keen also to lure Maradona into their inner circle, the brothers Giuliano devised a plan. It was one deemed simple but effective. They would lord him with kind words, reverence, and a respect reserved only for a king. It was time to throw a party. Show the new boy who really ruled Naples. Now, Jorge Saita Spiller gets pissed off with the Giulianos hawking all this knock-off Maradona merch around town, and he goes about Naples making a series of legal threats.

And the Julianos have a couple guapi reach out to the agent. It's in your best interest, they say gently, to keep quiet. And you know what happens next, Danny? Yeah, he keeps quiet. And it probably is in Jorge's best interest because he is also getting high on Diego's supply and not just the football riches.

One spring day in 1985, Maradona gets an invitation alongside his family to meet Pope John Paul II, himself a keen footballer. Even with an audience with Catholicism's ultimate big dog, it won't put Diego and Jorge off a bender, and off they go around the clubs of Rome, necking wine, visiting sex workers and consuming an unholy amount of marching powder. Jorge calls it to get a couple hours sleep, but that is not Maradona's style.

By the time they're called to meet the pontiff at the Vatican, Maradona is pranging out and on the edge of a breakdown. Maradona's mum and dad show up for the big day and they are horrified at the state of their son and his odd ball agent. After being ushered into the Pope's private residence by the Swiss Guard and shaking dozens of bishops' hands, Diego and Jorge are sitting with his personal assistant.

Diego's got the sweats and he's terrified the Pope will figure him out. "Just one more line," he tells Jorge, who of course has some blow in his suit jacket pocket. Cytospelia is justifiably nervous they're gonna get rumbled, but he hands the gear over to his old friend and persuades the assistant to let them use the Pope's personal bathroom. Then Diego pulls out the wrap and does a line right there. It's gotta be what? The only tenth person to do drugs on that toilet?

And then he heads back in and greets Pope John Paul II, who knows how friendly and happy the footballer is. Napoli finished third in the 1985-86 season, Maradona second with the club, and the Argentine is once again near the top of the goal scorers' table, the Capocannonieri. Capocannonieri. God, I'm sorry, Italians. This side, a long-time Italian striker, Bruno Giordano.

The fruits of Corrado's, Foligno's labours and the considerable efforts of Naples' underworld are beginning to ripen. Some of the ultras are even whispering about a title bid the following year. But before that, there is a small matter of a FIFA World Cup in Mexico. And Argentina, led not only by Maradona but stars like Daniel Passareja, Jorge Burachaga and Jorge Valdano, are among the favourites to win.

This is crazy, but even Mexico's hosting of the tournament is decided partly by the drug cartels tearing through South America at the time.

See, FIFA had actually awarded the cup to Colombia. But by 1982, stadiums remain unfinished and Colombia has no money to throw at its World Cup plans. Plus, the narco war being waged by Pablo Escobar against the Colombian state has authorities worried whether they can keep visiting fans safe at all. So later that year, Colombian president Belisario Betancourt goes on state TV to say, quote,

I announced to my compatriots that the 1986 World Football Championship will not be held in Colombia. We have a lot of things to do here and there is not enough time to attend to the extravagancies of FIFA and its members." I didn't know that happened and it's absolutely insane. Like, can you imagine how livid the Colombians must have been? I'm surprised they didn't like hunt down Escobar and lynch him with like canceling the World Cup in Colombia because of all the nonsense that he was bringing. It's insane.

Yeah, it's fully mad. It's actually the only country to pull out of hosting duties after having been awarded it. Shout out to Qatar. Well done, guys. You really got that job done. Yeah, Qatar did it. Thousands of people died building it in Qatar. They still pulled it off. Yeah, well done, Nepal, for building the Qatar World Cup. So Mexico at this point, which had just hosted the tournament like 16 years previous in 1970, it takes over instead.

And that is how bad it is getting on the continent at this time. Nonetheless, 1986 is one of the most fondly remembered World Cups. And Maradona is, of course, at the heart of it all. Remember, this is when Argentina and Britain are at war over the Falklands Islands or Las Islas Malvinas, which, personal opinion, Argentina has literally no claim over and it's never a part of Argentina. Neither was it inhabited before the Brits rocked up.

But unlike the Scottish guy who came on a guided tour of River Plate on my honeymoon in 2012, I wouldn't personally get drunk and scream, they're called the Falklands at the top of my voice, surrounded by flare-waving Argentine ultras. Yeah, you know, I tell you not to get political here, but nobody cares about the Falklands except for the country that you're moving to. So I don't know, maybe think about your strategy there for a minute, you know? Yeah, my partner is slightly concerned about my opinion on the Falklands. Anyway...

This episode is brought to you by SelectQuote. Life insurance can have a huge impact on our family's future. With SelectQuote, getting covered with the right policy for you is simple and affordable. SelectQuote's licensed insurance agents will tailor your experience to find a life insurance policy for your needs in as little as 15 minutes. And SelectQuote partners with carriers that provide policies for many conditions. SelectQuote. They shop.

History is complicated. The story of human progress is long, messy, and riddled with controversies big and small. On Conflicted, we dive headfirst into history's most infamous events and contentious figures. We try and untangle the good from the bad, the fact from the fiction, and the monsters from the misunderstood.

Was Genghis Khan a murderous butcher or a civic pioneer? Did the Allied powers go too far in firebombing the German city of Dresden at the twilight of World War II? And how did the Marquis de Sade acquire such a sinister reputation? And was any of it true? These are just a few of the tough questions we wrestle with and investigate on Conflicted.

So if you love history or just enjoy a good story, please join me, your host, Zach Cornwell, for a fascinating new topic each and every month. Conflicted, a history podcast is available on Spotify, Apple, or wherever else you get your podcasts. I hope to see you soon.

Ever heard of stoicism? Chances are, if you have, you've heard of stoicism with a lowercase s and not stoicism with an uppercase s. Lone wolves, no emotions, antisocial behavior, cold, indifference, all that is stoicism with a lowercase s.

Stoicism with an uppercase S is the ancient Greek philosophy and virtue ethics framework that centers on service to the cosmopolis, to include your family, friends, community, and planet, and the development of a good moral character. My name is Tanner Campbell, and I'm the host of Practical Stoicism, a three-times-a-week podcast teaching Stoic principles and concepts to anyone interested—

through the exploration of texts and deep dives into various moral topics. You can find Practical Stoicism where you're already listening to podcasts by searching for Practical Stoicism or by going to StoicismPod.com. I invite you to give it a listen today. You just might like it. England are, of course, then drawn to play Argentina in the quarterfinal round. Ron Greenwood, the England manager, is asked how he plans to stop Maradona.

First, he says, you pull out a handgun, which is a pretty good quote. The rest is history, of course. Maradona scores two in that game. One a cheat, the other genius. He scores two more in the semi against Belgium and on June 13, 1986, in front of 180

and 15,000 fans at Mexico City's Estadio Azteca, which if anyone wants to go and win a game next summer, hit me up, please. Maradona and his compatriots beat a determined West German side 3-2 and lift the World Cup for the second time in their history.

Maradona doesn't score in the final, but he does walk away with the golden ball, the award for the tournament's best player. Remember that title for next week's show. It's going to be very, very important. He's already the world's most famous footballer, but this catapults him into a new stratosphere.

or the stratosphere. There's only one stratosphere. The stratosphere. Anyway, Juarez Saita Spiller is getting calls for endorsements left and right. Maradona is amassing a hangar's worth of luxury sports cars, and his partying is going into overdrive, fueled all the way by his rising underworld pal, Carmine Giuliano.

Maradona is right at the very top. He's the best player on earth, the richest, and Napoli are tipped with him as a leader to win that winter's league, the first in their history. At the beginning of the season, Maradona reports for training and he rocks up to Corrado Foleno's office. He sparks a cigar and starts demanding huge money transfers so Desai can win the league, or else he'll leave.

Foligno is starting to really hate this kid, but there is nothing he can do.

outwardly he sings Maradona's praises as if he just rebuilt all of Irpini single-handedly. He also hires former Napoli player Ottavio Bianchi, a notoriously tough-nosed guy as coach, and he buys a bunch of top talent, including Verona's title-winning goalkeeper. A couple of these guys, though, have been tainted or even banned for their previous roles in a massive Totonero scandal at the start of the decade. I mean, cops on the pitch, police

pandemonium. Like I said, more of that in the next part. Perhaps drunk on power, or perhaps under the influence of his criminal friends in the Forchella, Maradona then makes a big move. He fires Jorge Saita Spila via phone when his friend is in Buenos Aires. Jorge, he says, has pocketed endorsement cash for himself, taking food out of the Maradona family's mouths.

Jorge hops on the next plane to Naples and prostrates himself in front of the star. In a furious encounter, the player refused to listen to his manager's pleas of innocence. Acting the part of betrayed friend, the King of Naples produced a bravuraic performance of bitterness, anger and tears that matched anything he ever produced on the pitch. For in Maradona's eyes, Jorge Saita Spilas committed the ultimate sin and betrayed his trust.

There could only be one punishment. He was out. Now, at this point, Maradona could probably do with a bit of a calming influence. Somebody good enough in people's skills that they can prise him away from the mob and the drugs and keep him on the straight and narrow. But that is not how Maradona works.

In comes a man, far more charismatic and rapacious as Torre, a flashy 38-year-old from Argentina. And he'll waste no time turning Maradona into the kind of star football has never seen before. At the same time, cops in Turin are listening on a tapped phone call between club officials in Napoli and Udinese, another top side. And it sounds a lot like they're plotting to fix a huge match.

It won't take long for the agent and the investigation to run their course. And with them, Maradona's incredible career rise peak and then begin on its slow, agonizing descent towards infamy, shame and scandal. And that, folks, is what we in the storytelling business call a cliffhanger.

Next episode, we have got that scandalous pregnancy, madams, stolen trophies, multi-million dollar drug shipments, highs, lows, that 1991 phone call, and an unlikely final chapter in Culiacán, the drug capital of Mexico. So stay tuned, and please, oh please, do not Instagram your crimes.

Nicely done. Always patreon.com slash general podcast. Please listen and stay tuned to see if Sean gets banned from Argentina before he even moves there. ... ... ... ...

Thank you.