The most important moments of his career as a footballer in Naples. Marco Baroni, coach of Lazio, challenges – once again – his past. Two Italian seasons, with the ups and downs linked to the physical and psychological conditions of Diego Maradona rather than to the strength of the team led by Albertino Bigon. From 1989 to 1991, arriving from Lecce, where he had played with Antonio Conte.
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Two billion lire and the price tag of a full-back who grew up in Napoli’s youth system, Antonio Carannante: for Lecce’s sporting director, the historic Mimmo Cataldo, that was an excellent deal. Baroni, with his physical prowess, immediately became a starter. And in his first season he scored two heavy goals in the championship: against Bologna, the 3000th goal in the history of Napoli and above all against Lazio, on the last day of the championship, the decisive one for the scudetto, which had effectively been mortgaged on the previous Sunday, with the victory on the Bologna pitch (and the simultaneous defeat of Milan in Verona, accompanied by the poisonous controversies of the Rossoneri clan).
Baroni was perfectly at ease in the Soccavo locker room. He spoke little, his interviews were always very balanced. He was not a cover figure in the team of Maradona, Alemao, Ferrara, Careca and Carnevale and of the goalkeeper Giuliani who stood out for his saves and the bright uniforms he designed. Marco wasn’t the type who frequented nightclubs, let alone Diego’s dubious company.
Home and field, as his teachers had taught him, including Conte’s own, Carlo Mazzone. The flame of pride in wearing the shirt with the scudetto in the second and final season was extinguished by what happened to Maradona, that is to Naples, because the team – beyond the strength of its men – depended on the moods of Diego, who closed in fact his relationship with the club four months before the disqualification.
European Cup away match in Moscow, the captain does not leave with his teammates because he is high on cocaine, then travels on a private plane and Bigon takes him to the bench as a punishment for the match against Spartak Moscow. It ends 0-0, Diego and two of his faithful teammates, Ferrara and Mauro, score on penalties. Only one mistake from the spot, fatal: that of Baroni. The season ends anonymously, no fan remembers how Napoli finished a year after the second scudetto (8th place). And the last match is also Marco’s last in blue.
Source: Il Mattino
