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The National (Scotland)

Sport

Matthew Lindsay

I walked around Naples in a Scott McTominay Scotland strip - the reaction was crazy

Scot Scott McTominay Scotland Naples Napoli Andy Dick Diego Maradona Serie A Bologna Che Adams

Wearing another football team’s colours in a one club city is always ill-advised.

When that city is Naples in southern Italy, a place where the hot-blooded inhabitants’ love for and devotion to their side is akin to a religion, it is nothing short of lunacy.

At this particular moment in time, with emotions running high entering the closing stages of an unbearably tense and impossibly close Serie A title race between current leaders Napoli and their nearest rivals Inter Milan, especially.

If an Inter fan was to appear there decked out in the blue and black of his heroes just now then “See Naples and die”, the famous phrase about the Campania capital that was coined by German poet Johan Wolfgang von Goethe in the 19th century, could prove to be prophetic.

What, though, would the Neapolitans’ reaction be if someone rocked up in a Scotland strip? One with the name McTominay emblazoned across the back of it? Would that elicit an altogether different response? Would it highlight just how they felt about a guy who has made such an impact for them this season?

Those were the questions asked by this newspaper’s head of sport as your correspondent prepared to travel over to Italy last month to write about the Scottish players, about Che Adams at Torino, Lewis Ferguson at Bologna, Liam Henderson at Empoli and Billy Gilmour and Scott McTominay at Napoli, who are currently acquitting themselves so well in Serie A.

The thought of a middle-aged, somewhat gravitationally challenged, slightly balding hack squeezing himself into a dark blue jersey that is designed for professional athletes and yomping by himself around the streets of a city which, for all of its renowned architecture, culture, history and cuisine, has something of a reputation for crime and violence was not an immediately appealing one. Has this guy never watched Gomorrah: La Serie?

There was, I must confess, an initial temptation to say, “Ah, vaffunculo you!”. When you are being sent on an all-expenses-paid, week-long trip to one of the greatest football nations on the planet, however, you really do have to acknowledge you are living La Dolce Vita and comply with whatever dastardly schemes your superiors devise.

A Scotland strip capacious enough was duly purchased from JD Sports on Argyle Street in Glasgow city centre the day before I departed and a helpful shop assistant in Greaves Sports on Gordon Street then arranged to have McTominay and the number 4 printed across the back for me.

“This will only take around 20 minutes so if you go and get a coffee it’ll be ready when you’re finished,” he told me. I would have forgiven him if he had said, “You want McTominay on the back of your top? How old are you man? Take a long hard look at yourself you sad loser!”

For whatever reason, I’ve never really been a replica football strip kinda guy. My kids have dozens, many of which their old man has acquired for them on his foreign travels. I can count on the fingers of one hand how many I’ve actually owned in my lifetime. The last Scotland top I possessed was the awful, itchy, polyester 1978 World Cup one. Maybe that was what put me off.

(Image: Newsquest) Perhaps that was the reason I felt distinctly uncomfortable as I set off on the big boss man’s Mission Improbable from my accommodation in the Fuorigrotta suburb of Naples where the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona is located resplendent in my McTominay Scotland strip on a Saturday morning.

It did not take very long, though, for my misgivings about the unusual assignment to be dispelled. The reaction to my striking attire was instantaneous as I nipped into a café for a sfogliatelle and an espresso before I caught my train from the Leopardi station into the Piazza Garibaldi.

Straight away, the customers and staff erupted and started babbling excitedly to me in their pidgin English. Scotland! Scotland! Scott Mac-Tom-Inee! Scott Mac-Tom-Inee! Napoli! Great play-er! Great play-er! I was immediately surrounded by beaming locals who were eager to speak to me about their latest idol. That experience very much set the tone for what proved to be an enormously enjoyable day.

The former Manchester United midfielder quickly established himself as a regular in Antonio Conte’s starting line-up after completing a £25.7m transfer back in August and soon became a popular figure in the stands. But his approval ratings among the public have skyrocketed in recent weeks as his goals have propelled the Gli Azzurri to the top of the league table.

He has by no means attained the legendary status which the likes of Careca, Marek Hamsik, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Ruud Krol, Diego Maradona, Dries Mertens and Dino Zoff have. If he continues the way he has been going, though, he most certainly will. The affection, admiration and even adoration which everyone I encountered had for him was startling.

The saying “like Sauchiehall Street on Christmas Eve” doesn’t do Naples city centre justice. It is pandemonium, absolute pandemonium. All day, every day. The chaos going on around me at Garibaldi made figuring out how to get to Toledo on the metro that bit more time consuming.

As I studied the underground map amid the mayhem, I became aware of three small children standing directly behind me. As I turned around, they pointed and spoke in unison like the Little Green Men from Pizza Planet in Toy Story 2. “Oooh!” they exclaimed. “Scotland! Scott Mac-Tom-Inee!”

It transpired they were Juventus, Roma and Inter fans who were visiting town for the day. But they were also very much admirers of Italian football’s man of the moment and had been intrigued to see my jersey.

Alas, my newfound buddies were soon whisked away by an extremely harassed looking woman before we had a chance to talk soccerball much. “Smettetela subito di parlare con quello strano Scozzese!” she chastised them as they headed hurridedly off into the throng.

Every visitor to Naples should make a beeline for the Quartieri Spagnoli, the Spanish quarter. Its atmospheric, narrow, claustrophobic, cobble-stoned alleyways are jampacked with bars, restaurants, food stalls and shops selling outrageous tourist tat and are always rammed with sightseers. The area exudes its own rather intense ambiance.

The walls of the buildings become increasingly covered with paintings of Maradona as you draw nearer to the giant three story Mario Filardi mural of the Argentinian great which is situated on the Via Emanuele de Deo.

(Image: Newsquest) That he has been canonised for his myriad achievements with Napoli back in the mid to late 1980s and early 1990s is obvious. There is a quasi-religious aspect to many of the depictions. He is portrayed as the pope replete with mitre and ferula and as a saint with a heavenly halo glowing around his tousled locks. There are shrines to him with statues of the Virgin Mary and burning candles next to his image.

The Neapolitans clearly feel that McTominay is something of a gift from God too. As I walked past one eaterie, the three waiters who were standing outside trying to tempt in customers nodded in approval at my shirt and gave me a collective thumbs up. It seemed a good place to stop and recover from my exertions with a piping hot pizza fritta and a nice ice cold Peroni.

“Where are you from?” said one of them excitedly. “Are you from Scotland? The home of Scott Mac-Tom-Inee? He is such a beautiful, beautiful play-er for Napoli. And strong as well. He is so, so strong. Such a great goal that he scored against Monza! Such a leap!”

He suddenly stepped back into the street and attempted to reenact his crucial late winner the previous weekend as his colleagues looked on and grinned at the delicious memory.

It is impossible to walk 100 yards in the Quartieri Spagnoli without passing a stall selling, ahem, official club merchandise. The majority of the strips on display have Maradona on the back. A fair few have, even though he was sold to Paris Saint-Germain for €80m back in January, Kvaratskhelia. But it is noticeable how many have McTominay on them now. It is another clear indication that his star is in the ascendency.

There was a downpour of biblical proportions as I made my way back to Toledo and so I had to nip down a sidetreet and into a pavement cafe to seek shelter under their umbrellas.

As I drank my beer and waited for the torrential rain to go off, I got chatting to the lads at the table next to mine. It transpired they were three old friends from Glasgow who were on their annual boys’ weekend away together, Andy Dick, Alan Doherty and Tommy Samuelson.

Talk turned to the Football Italia show which was broadcast by Channel 4 back in the 1990s after a while. The iconic programme was a smash hit among Scottish football fans, Andy, Alan and Tommy among them, at the time and is remembered fondly to this day.

The trio’s excitement about the prospect of physically going to see one of their compatriots play for Napoli in a Serie A game in the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in the flesh the following evening was palpable. “It’s brilliant to see a Scot like Scott here in Italy and doing so well,” said Andy.

(Image: Newsquest) A lot of visitors to Naples aren’t particularly enamoured with its unique charms. There are certainly some less than salubrious districts. The traffic, too, is noisy and relentless. It is definitely not for everyone. I must admit that, having had my pocket picked and my wallet and mobile phone stolen when Rangers played Napoli away in the Champions League in 2022, I had not been a huge admirer in the past either.

But I was left scratching my head and wondering why after my day out. There are many jaw-droppingly beautiful spots. Sitting in the shade of the palm trees in the Piazza Bellini and looking out at the ruined walls of the ancient Greek city of Neapolis around me as I sipped an Aperol spritz cocktail was beyond chilled.

The peace and tranquility were only broken by regular shouts of “great strip”, “Mac-Tom-Inee” and “forza Napoli” from cheery passers-by who spotted my distinctive garb and lit up when they did so.

As I headed along the waterfront towards Lungomarte beyond the Castel dell’Ovo looking for a good dinner spot later on, the sun suddenly broke through the clouds and illuminated the slopes of Mount Vesuvius miles away in the distance as well as the glistening waters of the Bay of Naples before me.

As I paused and marvelled at the breathtaking sight a cry rang out in the evening air. Ho! That boy there’s got a Scotland strip on! No Scotland, no party! No Scotland, no party! A gaggle of my compatriots, all wearing Napoli tops with Gilmour and McTominay printed on the back of them, were disembarking from a boat at the harbour.

It turned out they were from Peterhead and were in town to celebrate a 40th birthday. They had been on a day trip to Capri and were having a rare old time.

They showed me a picture of the “Napoli Tartan Army” flag they had brought with them and were set to unfurl at the big match against Torino on Sunday evening. They were not the only ones holding up saltires and dancing a jig on the night.

(Image: Newsquest) McTominay duly delivered again with a first half double which secured a 2-0 triumph and sent the hosts three points clear of Inter, who had lost at the San Siro to Roma earlier in the day, at the top of the Serie A.

The sell-out 51,144-strong crowd chanted his name repeatedly as they savoured the sweet occasion to the full.

Naples, as I discovered, is in complete and utter thrall to Scott McTominay just now. If he helps Napoli to clinch only the fourth Scudetto in their history in the coming weeks then he will have a special place in the hearts of a fiery, friendly and football-obsessed people forevermore.

Who knows? They may even snap up a few Scotland strips in his honour.

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