Fiamma Sangiovannese

San Giovanni a Teduccio is the Naples the postcards do not show: the working class quarter of the eastern periphery, between the port and the factories that have long closed, land of people who worked steel and canning and now bet on reinvention. That is where Fiamma Sangiovannese lives, headquartered on the square of the church of San Giovanni Battista, and everything about the club tells its origin: the name Fiamma, a classic signature of clubs born around Italy's parish oratories and church sports circles, the address on the church square, and football as service to the neighbourhood before it is competition. In the city where Maradona's Napoli is the official religion, Fiamma practises the local cult: peripheral pitches, kids from the block, championships the newspapers do not cover. The official history is short on documents and long on Sundays. No flame is small to those who warm themselves by it.