Fabiano Santacroce is returning to the pitch at 40, beginning a new football chapter with Magma Napoli in Prima Categoria after five years away from the eleven-a-side game. For a defender who once faced the leading forwards of Serie A and wore the shirts of Napoli and Parma, the prospect of Sunday football in Secondigliano carries its own familiar weight.
Key takeaways
- Santacroce has joined Magma Napoli, the newly promoted Prima Categoria club based at the Barassi ground in Secondigliano.
- The former Napoli and Parma defender retired in 2020 following his spell with Virtus Verona.
- He reunites with Magma captain Reginaldo, whose arrival last season helped drive the club to promotion from Seconda Categoria.
- Santacroce is training every day and plans to assist the club’s new youth academy as well as its senior side.
- The 40-year-old, who underwent five operations on his right knee, said the return will feel like playing in Serie A again.
A return shaped by friendship and a local project
Santacroce spent recent days in Sardinia before confirming what he described as an important decision: he wanted to play again. The 1986-born defender had explored several roles after ending his professional career in 2020, working as a scout, intermediary and coach while continuing to play five-a-side football with friends and former team-mates.
This time, however, he sees a more serious commitment. “I have never lost the desire to play,” he said. “Being on the pitch is fun for me.” He has already felt the physical difference between small-sided football and a full-sized field, joking that daily training has left him sore all over.
Magma Napoli had tried to bring him in a season earlier, when president Vincenzo Rossi Pisano first made contact, but Santacroce felt this was the right moment. A further pull was Reginaldo, his friend and the club captain, who signed last year and helped take Magma out of Seconda Categoria.
The defender was drawn to the scale of the club’s ambitions. Magma owns the Barassi stadium in the heart of Secondigliano and attracted hundreds of supporters for matches last season. Santacroce also wants to contribute to the technical work around the newly formed football school, helping younger players develop properly.
He knows the demands will be different from those of his Serie A years. Having turned 40 in August, he expects to meet forwards barely half his age. “They will be quick,” he said, “but I will try to use experience to stop them.”
From Serie A battles to another Sunday afternoon
Santacroce’s career brought him up against Francesco Totti, David Trezeguet, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alessandro Del Piero, among many others. Asked for the most difficult opponent, he selected Alexandre Pato in the Brazilian’s first Milan season, recalling a player he considered almost impossible to mark.
Hernán Crespo also left a lasting impression. Santacroce praised the Argentine’s exceptional tactical intelligence, saying Crespo could seem to disappear before suddenly arriving in the decisive space. Cassano, meanwhile, supplied a different sort of memory: during a match against Sampdoria, the forward called Santacroce over to promise a trick, then pinched the backside of an opposing player he knew well, setting off laughter around the pitch.
There were chaotic moments off it, too. Shortly after joining Napoli in 2008 at the age of 22, Santacroce was involved in a dinner-time confrontation with Ezequiel Lavezzi. Lavezzi began throwing ice cubes at him; Santacroce responded by throwing a Coca-Cola bottle towards the group of South American players. The argument grew into a major scuffle and a chase along the Naples seafront involving around 10 cars. By the following day, the group had settled the matter, and Santacroce said he and “Pocho” Lavezzi became close friends who still speak now.
Paolo Cannavaro was another central figure in that Napoli dressing room. Santacroce described the former captain as the team’s great prankster, recalling an encounter only months ago when Cannavaro, riding a T-Max scooter in a full-face helmet, accelerated towards him as he crossed a street in central Naples. Santacroce initially thought he was about to be hit before Cannavaro revealed himself and the pair embraced.
On the field, Santacroce found Ibrahimovic no easier to deal with. He recalled standing behind the Swede and pulling at his shirt, only to be met with a fierce look and a complaint: “What are you doing, touching me?” A collision with Marco Materazzi was even more painful. Santacroce said both fell in the penalty area and Materazzi’s boot caught him squarely in the face. Materazzi had been his idol and the one player whose shirt he particularly wanted, though the two have not met since.
Among his coaches at Napoli were Edoardo Reja, Roberto Donadoni and Walter Mazzarri, all of whom Santacroce rates highly. Yet he credits Zdeněk Zeman above anyone else for giving him his professional start, handing him a Como debut in C1 in 2004 when he was 18. He remembers Zeman constantly smoking during training and team-mates stopping to vomit under the intensity of the sessions.
He also recalled Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis as an explosive personality, often entering the dressing room at half-time to compare football with cinema. After a defeat to Ronaldinho’s Milan, De Laurentiis rewarded the players anyway because he believed they had performed well.
Santacroce received an Italy call-up from Marcello Lippi in 2008 and was told he would make his debut, but recurring trouble with his right knee prevented it. Five operations followed, a long ordeal that changed the course of his international hopes.
Now the setting is different, but the motivation has returned. Santacroce will bring his experience to Magma Napoli’s defence, its youth project and its next step after promotion. “I cannot wait,” he said. “For me, it will be like being back in Serie A.”
