Not too long in the past, and recently enough that Pepe Reina can remember, Italian football was considered a doomed destination for Spanish footballers, even the very good ones. Reina’s former Barcelona teammates, Pep Guardiola and Gaizka Mendieta, struggled as players in Serie A, and were not alone for that.
The Italy that Reina, a serial collector of medals with the Spain national team and an experienced traveller after his stints in England and Germany, has come to love feels anything but hostile. But, Reina would stress, the city he calls his home from home is a distinct, unique part of Italy. He feels like an honorary Neapolitan before he necessarily feels an honorary Italian. The city appreciates him. The mayor of Naples has talked of making the popular Reina an Italian citizen.
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If Reina, a dressing-room extrovert, is one of the loudest cheerleaders for Naples and the Napoli he has represented now for almost three seasons, he is not the only man who extols its virtues in Spanish. He is one of a trio of senior Spaniards at his club, and his and their enthusiasm has bonded them with Napoli supporters, whose voices he hopes will sound hostile on Tuesday to some of his compatriots. Napoli have a 3-1 scoreline to reverse in the second leg of their last-16 Uefa Champions League tie against Real Madrid.
Reina has appealed to fans to make good on the reputation for feverish noise at their San Paolo arena. “Real Madrid can expect a hot reception,” Reina said. “And we must believe in a comeback. The away goal we scored in Madrid is important. We can beat Madrid 2-0.”
Reina, who was born in Madrid and has played for Barcelona, Villarreal, Liverpool and Bayern Munich, made some excellent saves in the first leg at the Bernabeu but would be forgiven for thinking he might have been better protected for at least one of the goals that Madrid scored, the equaliser, headed in by Karim Benzema after Napoli had taken a surprise lead. Benzema outleapt Raul Albiol to score.
Albiol, tall and commanding in the centre of Napoli’s defence, does not lose too many aerial jousts, and madridistas know that. Albiol, who like Reina was part of the Spain squads who won the 2010 World Cup and European championships either side of that, is a former Real man, who has thrived in Naples since he joined the Serie A club.
Napoli bought Albiol, 31, from Madrid in the summer of 2013 and he has become a conspicuous leader of a team who have turned into consistent challengers of Juventus’s position at the summit of Italian football. He felt “disappointed” at the outcome of his return to the Bernabeu that was once his home for the first leg, three weeks ago, but, like Reina, has advised Madrid that Napoli feel very much alive in the tie.
“We realise it’s going to be hard,” Albiol said, “but our fans really respond to these sorts of games. They’ve waited a long time for them.” At Madrid, Albiol played for a club for whom Champions League football, every season, was a given. The Napoli he joined are in only their fourth Champions League campaign.
Their Spanish armada have lent Napoli a know-how in the competition. Reina has played in a Champions League final, for Liverpool, while Albiol reached three semi-finals as a Madrid player. Jose Callejon, the industrious, skilful attacking midfielder, was a Real teammate of Albiol’s for two of those and made the same move from Madrid, where he had begun his career in their youth system, to Napoli three years ago.
Naples has suited Callejon. He has established a regular starting spot, gained the affection of fans, scored goals, and won his first caps for Spain since he swapped La Liga for Serie A.
Madrid know the impish Callejon can conjure goalscoring opportunities from unlikely positions, and that, at 30, he is a wiser, more confident player than the one they last saw in their all-white strip.
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