It’s the sacrifice and emotion that make football so much more that just a game for lifelong Napoli fan Gaetano Bastone. His connection to the club runs deep. Born a Neapolitan – his grandparents are Napoli supporters – in fact, so to is everyone is his family. Known for their pride and passion, for the people of Naples, football is entwined with their city and the love they have for it. Gaetano puts it simply: “Supporting the team is like supporting the city, being at the stadium every Sunday is a life necessity.”
Here, with photos taken from Napoli’s home matches against Salernitana (13/01/24) and Verona 04/02/24), Gaetano effective sums up his love of Napoli, the culture around the club, the city and the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
“I think that immortalising these moments is important, because football is emotions and these people live on these emotions.”
Gaetano Bastone
“For me, it’s easy to me to speak about my photos. The idea is to put to the fans at the centre and focus on what is inside and outside of the stadium. When I’m at stadium the feeling is that of being at home and I hope to transmit this feeling through my photos.
“Singing for your team, your city and your colours means everything to these people (Napoli supporters). For this reason I think that immortalising these moments is important, because football is emotions
and these people live on these emotions, and the sacrifices that every fan makes week in week out to follow their team home and away are moments that life will never give them back. Only those who experience these moments know what it means to cry over a victory or defeat. Football is not just some stupid game. And the photos I take every weekend are indelible proof of this.
“I have been a Napoli fan since I was a child. The reason is easy: my father is a Napoli supporter, my uncle is a Napoli supporter, my grandparents are Napoli supporters, everyone in my family supports Napoli. The football love for Napoli is something special for me. Supporting the team is like supporting the city, being at the stadium every Sunday is a life necessity. The Napoli team for me and for each Napoli fans means a direct link with the city, with our culture and roots of our land.
“When I think of football, I think of three legends who brought me closer to this sport: Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Magical, classy and physically overpowering – the three talents that impressed me the most. But my childhood idol linked to my love for Napoli is Roberto “El Pampa” Sosa, the last man to wear the number 10 on his shirt for Napoli.
“I still remember my first time with my father at San Paolo stadium (before the Maradona’s death), it was magic. 16/01/2005, Napoli vs Fermana. I was 11 years old – my legs were shaking, my voice was struggling to come out, my heart was beating fast. Napoli was in the third division and, with a last minute goal, won 1-0. From this match, I went to the stadium with my father to all the home matches of the two years in the third division, and then in the second division and those of the first year back in Serie A. Today, it is me who takes my father to the stadium, even if many things have changed over the years, the emotions continue to remain the same as the first time.
“Football has given me a lot of pain, in recent years my team has managed many beautiful victories but an important trophy has been missing for 33 years. Then finally 2023, a perfect year, crowned with the victory of the third Scudetto. Imagine living through a season where your team plays some of the best football in Europe and by the middle of the championship has such an advantage over the second place team that allow the fans to decorate the city in blue 3 months before the final victory. Then imagine having an annual season ticket, next to your old friends. Every Sunday a party: blue flags, stadium chants and lots of happiness. It’s no longer fantasy, it’s reality! It was a unique emotion that I will never forget in my life.
“Football photography has really inspired me. My idea of football photography is to capture moments inside and outside of the stadium. The subjects of my photography are the craziest fans, the fantastic colours of the stadium torches, the passion of the various sectors during the stadium chants. My idea is to move this kind of photography also outside from Naples in order to create new connections with football fans from all over the world.
“I don’t have a particular photographer who inspires me for the moment but many Instagram pages that promote football culture that I observe carefully every day. A photographer I respect very much is Lou Bever, love the way he brings football culture closer to art.”
Keep up with Gae’s work on Instagram.
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