Naples is preparing to reopen Largo Maradona after a three-month redevelopment that has altered one of the city’s most visited football landmarks. The mural of Diego Armando Maradona on Via Emanuele De Deo, a pilgrimage point for Napoli supporters and visitors from around the world, has been restored as part of a wider renewal of the surrounding area.
The decision
The project was financed privately, with total investment of €150,000, and followed an agreement between local traders and the Municipality of Naples. The square itself remains privately owned but is held under concession by the city council, while public access will continue to be free.
Its renewal comes after a difficult period for the area. In October 2025, municipal police inspections identified irregularities involving market carts and businesses, including unauthorised occupation of public land and the theft of electricity. Fines and reports of up to €5,000 were issued.
Local operators responded with a protest that lasted, on and off, for several weeks. Tarpaulins were put up around the square and Maradona’s face was covered by a sheet. The dispute began to move towards a settlement when Mayor Gaetano Manfredi backed a shared route with the traders.
On 30 October 2025, Maradona’s birthday, Manfredi announced that an arrangement had been reached to return the site to the city, saying that the agreement with local businesses had begun on the day set aside to remember Diego.
The new rules for the area reflect the municipality’s guidelines. Souvenir sellers will use removable carts, while drinks are to be sold only as packaged takeaway items. The intention has been to preserve the place’s open character while bringing order to an area whose informal football economy had become inseparable from the mural itself.
A changed image of Diego
The centrepiece remains Mario Filardi’s 1990 portrait of Maradona, but the building façade has been fully renewed. Early images circulating online show brighter colours, a newly uniform grey background, and added details including a football and a pair of boots.
Those previews have drawn a restrained, and often hostile, response from supporters. Many felt that the older backdrop gave the image greater life, while others said they were glad to have seen the original version before the restoration. One comment called the result “the ugliest mural I have ever seen”; another simply argued that it had been better before.
For now, those judgements have been formed from photographs rather than a view of the finished work in the square. The reopening is expected within days, with the restored image of Maradona soon to be visible again above the historic building.
The timing carries its own weight in Naples. With Diego’s birthday approaching, Largo Maradona is being returned not merely as a cleaned-up tourist stop, but as a public corner of the city’s football memory. Whether the revised mural wins over those attached to its former appearance will be decided in the street, once the visitors, supporters and neighbourhood traders are back beneath it.
