logo
Mon 25 January 2021 | 16:30

Best Napoli Midfielders of All Time

In the following article from SportMob, we will have a look at the list of the best ever Napoli midfielders and analyze the best Napoli midfielders ever.

Napoli is a football club in Italy. Napoli is one of the most followed clubs in Italy. The club is well-known for its passionate fans. It has won Serie A twice, and been runners-up six times, the

Coppa Italia

five times, the Supercoppa Italiana twice, and the 1988–89 UEFA Cup. Napoli have had ups and downs throughout their history and many great players donned the Gli Azzurri jersey in their highs and lows.

The giants of Italian football, S.S.C. Napoli, generally known as Napoli, are perhaps the most beloved football team in the south of Italy. Napoli does have a rich and proud history that dates back to 1904. After the arrival of English sailors, especially William Poths, the Napoli club was founded in the early 1900s. Poths came from

England

, where football was really famous those days and he partnered up to form Napoli alongside Ernesto Bruschini, who was originally from Naples.

Napoli is also one of the top teams in Europe. In this team, very prominent players play who have a history of being at the highest level. However, our topic today is not about the current best players in the team, but about Napoli greatest midfielders ever. So join us in the

best Napoli midfielders of all time

article.

Before we start the all-time nest Napoli midfielders article, we need to state that many of you are probably familiar with the name of Marek Hamsik, a great midfielder who played for this team for many years, but do you have the same information about names like Michele Andreolo, Massimo Crippa, Pierluigi Ronzon, Alemao, etc.? All these names are best ever Napoli midfielders.

The List of Napoli Greatest Midfielders Ever

The players we mentioned above as the best Napoli midfielders of all time, were the stars of Napoli at the time of the playing and reached important achievements that will go down in the history of Napoli. If you are interested in the list of

all-time best Napoli midfielders

, so keep reading.

Michele Andreolo

Michele Andreolo is a famous player in the history of Napoli. He was an Italian-Uruguayan midfielder who played only three seasons at Napoli but was quickly named one of the

best Napoli midfielders of all time

. Michele Andreolo was a very small and fast midfielder. He had some amazing skills like fast dribbles, remarkable speed, and excellent passes and this is why he is in all-time best midfielders at Napoli article.

It is interesting to know that Michele Andreolo played for the Uruguayan national team in 1935, but a year later, in 1936, he changed his nationality to play for Italy. He was very popular in Uruguay.

With Nacional he won two national titles, in 1933 and in 1934, quickly becoming a staple of the team and one of the darlings of the supporters. Of course, he is also one of the legends of Bologna, as he was able to win four Scudetto with

Bologna

.

Massimo Crippa

Massimo Crippa is a Napoli legend and former Azzurri player who has been a member of the Italian national football team since 1988 and has played in 17 national games. He scored 1 goal in his national games. The name of Massimo Crippa always comes up when it comes to the

best Napoli midfielders of all time

.

He played for Napoli for five seasons and during those five years, he wore the Napoli jersey 150 times and scored 9 goals. Of course, he was a central midfielder and was mostly responsible for stopping rival players. Massimo Crippa was a physical and strong player. Crippa began his playing career during the 1981-82 season, with Meda Mobil, in the Prima Categoria, where he spent two seasons in the first squad.

Crippa decided to leave Torino in the summer of 1988 to join Napoli. Napoli was an attractive destination as playing behind Diego Maradona, who was at the peak of his abilities, would charm any player in the world. Crippa joined a strong midfield that also included Alemao, Fernando De Napoli, and Francesco Romano. In his first season with the club, Crippa helped Napoli to finish second in Serie A and to win the UEFA Cup, beating VfB

Stuttgart

in the final.

Crippa helped Napoli to challenge AC Milan and finally win the Scudetto He scored a goal as Napoli defeated

Juventus

5-1 in the 1990 Supercoppa. Massimo Crippa is currently the sporting director of Renate Club in the Italian Serie C. Now, when it comes to best Napoli midfielders ever and 

Napoli greatest midfielders ever

, many place Crippa in the top ten.

Related Article: 

Best Arsenal XI of All Time

Enrico Colombari

Enrico Colombari is one of the oldest players on the Napoli midfielders best ever list. He started his football career with Gerbi Pisa. Enrico Colombari actually started playing football in 1920 and was able to reach high levels. Colombari was a very good defensive midfielder. He used to give a lot of discipline to the midfield. Of course, according to videos of Colombari's playing time, he was one of the best defensive midfielders in Europe in those years.

Enrico Colombari never had much success with

Napoli

but played at the club for seven years. After retiring from football, he became a manager and coached eight different teams until 1950. He passed away on March 8, 1983, at the age of 78. Now he is included in the list of best Napoli midfielders of all time.

Pierluigi Ronzon

Pierluigi Ronzon is a former Italian football player from Udine. He played as a defensive midfielder or libero defender in the top clubs like Sampdoria, Napoli, Lazio,

Atalanta

and AC Milan. On the international level, he represented Italy on one occasion, in a game played on 13 March 1960. Notably, for Napoli he scored the match-winning goal of the 1961–62 Coppa Italia final against Spal 1907; this was the first time a club from Serie B had won the cup.

Naturally, many know Pierluigi Ronzon by the name of Napoli since it was there that he was introduced to the world of football and was able to achieve success and trophies. Pierluigi Ronzon played for Napoli, one of the biggest clubs in southern Italy, for six years. The situation in Italy is such that there has always been a big difference between northern Italian clubs such as Milan, Inter and Juventus and Napoli from the south.

The fans of these clubs have been competing for a long time, and of course, according to the southerners, the northerners have always been favored by the officials. As for Pierluigi Ronzon, he was a very good midfielder. Few Napoli fans may remember Ronzon, but old Napoli fans will certainly never forget the name of one of Napoli's greatest midfielders ever.

Alemao

We know him by the name Alemao, but his real name, like the name of all Brazilians, is very long. Ricardo Rogerio de Brito is also one of the

best Napoli midfielders of all time

. Alemao was a very technical, powerful, stable, dominant, and great midfielder. In fact, he is one of the best deep-lying playmakers in the history of Serie A, having spent four fantastic seasons at Napoli.

In one of the interesting scenes he had in his career, during the game against Atalanta in the final of Coppa Italia, Atlanta fans threw a 100 lira coin at the head of Napoli's Brazilian midfielder Alemao. due to his tactical ability, enthusiasm, tackling, and his ability to read the game, as well as his capacity to start attacking plays after winning back possession, Alemao is considered as one of the all-time best Napoli midfielders.

Alemao was one of the pillars of the team during the famous Napoli Scudetto in the 1990-1980 season. He even helped Napoli win the prestigious Uefa Cup and add the Super Cup to the Napoli Museum the season after the Scudetto.

Alemao is one of the most beloved players with Napoli fans today, and almost every physical midfielder who joins Napoli is compared to Alemao.

Allan

has been one of the most similar players to Alemao in recent years. Of course, Allan joined Everton in the summer of 2020, but he has always been one of Napoli's best midfielders.

Related Article: 

Best Inter XI of All Time

Carlo Buscaglia

Carlo Buscaglia is one of the all-time best Napoli midfielders who has achieved a very special place in the history of Napoli and played club football most notably for this club. He spent a decade at Napoli, also serving as the team's captain, and wrote himself into the appearance records books at the club; today he is sixth in the club's all-time appearance records for the league and deserves to be in the list of best Napoli midfielders of all time.

We know Carlo Buscaglia best from his good memories with Napoli since he played for this club for 10 years and always showed his best performances. Carlo Buscaglia, born 9 February 1909 in Turin,

Italy

, also has a history of playing for Juventus. In those years, Napoli was not a direct rival to Juventus, and Napoli was one of the newly established clubs. Carlo Buscaglia passed away on August 15, 1981, at the age of 72.

Salvatore Bagni

Salvatore Bagni began his career with Serie D club Carpi in 1975. later played for Serie A side Perugia and showing some encouraging performances, moved to Inter in 1981, where he won the Coppa Italia in 1982. He was considered a potential heir to Gabriele Oriali in midfield.

Bagni is best remembered for his playing time at Napoli where he won a Scudetto-Coppa Italia double in 1987, which included the first of two league titles won by Napoli in its history; at Napoli, Bagni often partnered up with Fernando De Napoli in midfield, as a defensive foil to the club's star playmaker

Diego Maradona

.

Salvatore Bagni, included in the list of all-time best midfielders at Napoli, was also the idol of Gennaro Gattuso. Gattuso, who is considered one of the best in the history of football, has said many times that as a child, he always hung a poster of Salvatore Bagni on the wall of his room. Bagni later made 41 appearances for the senior Italy national football team between 1981 and 1987, scoring five goals.

Fernando De Napoli

Fernando De Napoli is another player who deserves to be on the list of best Napoli midfielders of all time. He was a midfielder but sometimes he could play as a winger if needed. Fernando De Napoli has been with SS Napoli for six years and is almost one of the club's legends.

Fernando De Napoli always showed his best games for Napoli and even played 54 games for the Italian national team. Napoli fans love Fernando because he was a member of Napoli's dream team. Without a doubt, he is considered as one of the

best Napoli midfielders ever

.

De Napoli often played alongside Salvatore Bagni, serving as a defensive foil to the club's star playmaker Diego Maradona. During his six-year spell with the team, De Napoli won the Scudetto in 1987 and 1990, the Coppa Italia in 1987, the UEFA Cup in 1989, and the Supercoppa Italiana in 1990.

Related Article: 

Diego Maradona Biography

Antonio Juliano

Antonio Juliano played the biggest of his club career with Napoli, winning the Coppa Delle Alpi in 1966, and the Coppa Italia and the Anglo-Italian League Cup in 1976. Born in Naples, Antonio Juliano played for Napoli for almost 16 years and became one of the legends and, one of

all-time best midfielders at Napoli

.

Today, all Napoli fans are familiar with Antonio Juliano as he was the main star of the fans during the difficult days of the club. Antonio Juliano's style of play was such that everyone knew him as one of the most technical, best, hard-working and strongest midfielders in Italy. Juliano made18 appearances for Italy was a member of the championship-winning team of Euro 68.

Marek Hamsik

One of the greatest Napoli players ever, Hamsik, is Napoli’s second goalscorer after

Dries Mertens

as well as record appearances maker. In fact, Slovakian midfielder Marek Hamsik has scored 121 goals for the club and collected 521 appearances in all competitions during his 12 seasons with the team. Since joining from

Brescia

in 2007, at the age of 19, for a bargain fee of €5.5m, Hamsik has gone on to become a fundamental part of the Napoli side.

He was a great captain in Maurizio Sarri's dream team. As stated by many pundits in Italian football, Marek Hamsik is one of the best no.10 in the history of Serie A and Napoli. Mark Hamsik definitely deserves to be on the list of best Napoli midfielders of all time as he is undoubtedly one of the

best ever Napoli midfielders

. The Slovakian midfielder, who has never left Napoli in recent years despite receiving fantastic offers from Milan and

Inter

, is a fan favorite legend. Hamsik became the club’s captain in 2014. In February 2019, he joined the Chinese club Dalian Yifang.

 


DISCLAIMER! Sportmob does not claim ownership of any of the pictures posted on this website. Again, we do not host pictures or videos ourselves. Our authors merely link to the rightful owner. Lastly, Sportmob have carefully considered and reviewed all of its content. Despite that, it is possible that some information might be out-dated or incomplete.