NAPLES, Italy (Reuters) - The face of a young Diego Armando Maradona gazes down from a mural in Naples' Miracles Square, watching the city gear up for a celebration it hasn't enjoyed since the Argentine soccer star was at his peak more than 30 years ago.
Miracles for Neapolitans, who grew up in a city steeped in mysticism and superstition, are happening on the pitch, as their team cruise towards a third Serie A triumph and prepares for their first ever quarter-final in the Champions League.
Maradona was also the driving force behind the Napoli team at that time, helping the city win its first league title in 1987 and its second just three years later in 1990. The city's craftsmen have created figurines of the city's new heroes. Cardboard silhouettes of the players line the city's Spanish Quarters, as vespas weave through the narrow lanes and blue flags flutter in front of the shops.
"The euphoria is impossible to contain," said Antonio Sarracino, 55, who keeps a collection tin for donations inside his shop. Novelist and poet Erri De Luca recalls that Maradona, who remains the city's biggest hero and had the stadium named after him, joined the team just a few years after the 1980 earthquake in the nearby Irpinia area, which killed 2,700.
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