Player Focus: Football Immortality in Impressive Insigne's Sights

Even the Boston Celtics were on their feet. VIPs on Sunday night at San Siro, they had been impressed by the pick and roll and the small ball played by Napoli. Lorenzo Insigne probably reminded them of Muggsy Bogues. 15 minutes from the end, he left the field to a standing ovation, not only from the 3,000 Napoli fans that had made the trip, but also the Milan supporters whose team he had cut to ribbons. Taken aback by the applause, a stunned Insigne returned it out of gratitude.  

Tuesday’s La Gazzetta dello Sport awarded him another ‘pink pearl’, their new weekly award established to appreciate and encourage outstanding skill, the moments that get you out of your seat. Last time it was for seeing a motorway where others see a footpath to send Allan on the road to goal in the 5-0 win against Lazio. This time it was for a free-kick he curled beyond Milan goalkeeper Diego Lopez, one that was reminiscent of a set-piece he scored to seal victory over Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League a couple of years ago. Such a display on Sunday night saw the Napoli striker awarded the WhoScored man of the match award. 

Along the streets around Naples’ San Gregorio Armeno church, the popular nativity scenes sold on the market stalls have a new Insigne figurine. He carries four babàs, the Neapolitan pastry, a local way of commemorating Napoli’s 4-0 win against Milan. They hadn’t put four past them since the days of Maradona in the winter of 1988. They hadn’t done it at San Siro since 1956 when another little man - el petisso - Bruno Pesaola and Luis Vinicio surprised Milan 5-3.  

The pink paper hailed Insigne as Lorenzo il Magnifico, the same sobriquet of one of the Medicis, which is perhaps a touch ironic when you consider that Napoli’s next opponents and fellow title contenders are Florentine. But magnificent he was and has been throughout this campaign. To declare him the player of the season so far is no exaggeration. His WhoScored rating (7.83) is second only to Franco Vázquez (7.86) so far. 

Insigne was beginning to play with this vim and vigour a year ago when injury brought him to a crashing halt. Knee ligament damage kept him out until April. He has come back stronger and is now playing with a hitherto never before seen joie de vivre in a Napoli shirt. There is a snap, crackle and pop to his play. 

Serie A now seems like the child’s play he made of Serie B when he scored 18 and assisted 14 goals as Pescara got promoted under Zdenek Zeman. Insigne has matured and raised his game without doubt, but there’s also a case to be made that a change of manager has helped too. I always remember him telling Guerin Sportivo: “From Zeman I learned that football is joy. From Mazzarri and Benitez I learned that the big clubs win because they defend with 11 players.”  

Napoli’s greatest improvement under Maurizio Sarri has been their defence. They have kept five clean sheets in their last six games. But they are not a defensive team. They weren’t under Benitez either, but the impression is that Insigne has greater freedom of expression and more faith under Sarri. He has started every game in Serie A and is central to his plans. For Benitez, the team’s No.10 - albeit in a different system, the 4-2-3-1 - was captain Marek Hamsik. For Sarri, who started out playing the 4-3-1-2 he played at Empoli, it had to be Insigne. “He is one of Italian football’s brightest talents,” he said.  

Even though Napoli have since changed to a 4-3-3, Insigne didn’t disappoint in the hole. You might say his role is the one Zeman borrowed from Streetcar Named Desire for Francesco Totti, his Stella, in the late `90s: out on the left with a license to cut inside and encouragement to get some of the glory for himself. That side, and particularly the understanding between Insigne and Gonzalo Higuain, has now become the most lethal in Serie A. They’re so telepathic as to be one and the same. The papers are calling the phenomenon HiguaInsigne.  

The contrast with last season couldn’t be starker. Higuain’s dream of winning the World Cup and then the Scudetto with Napoli like Maradona did in `86 and `87 went up in smoke. Denied a place in the Champions League group stages by Athletic Bilbao, there was nothing to lift his spirits after that miss in the World Cup final at the Maracana. Insigne was booed at San Paolo after refusing to talk to fans in at a pre-season get together out of respect for Ciro Esposito, the Napoli supporter whose death cast a shadow over the Coppa Italia final he’d won with a couple of goals in a 3-1 win against Fiorentina. “You don’t deserve him in Naples,” his wife Instagrammed. Higuain’s penalty misses against Lazio in their Champions League play-off and Chile in the Copa America also threatened to make him return to pre-season under a cloud.  

However, both are now loving their football again and combining brilliantly. Great credit for that is owed to Sarri. A Insigne-Higuain-Insigne give-and-go brought goals against Juventus and Milan. The pair are bringing the best out of each other. Insigne slid Higuain in beautifully against Samp, a pass he repeated for Allan against Lazio, who he set up again on Sunday. Insigne has been involved in eight of Napoli’s 16 league goals - the Napoli striker has directly contributed to more of his team's goals than any other player in Italy's top tier this term. He is averaging a goal or an assist every 64 minutes. Insigne has already matched his best goalscoring tally in Serie A (5) - only Eder (6) has netted more in Italy's top-flight - for an entire campaign, and this season is only seven games old. No one in Serie A is taking more shots per game than the 24-year-old (5.1) who Napoli bought for €1,500 from Olimpia Sant’Arpino little under a decade ago.  

Former Napoli owner Corrado Ferlaino believes it’s time the club dusted off Maradona's No.10 shirt and gave it to Insigne. “Don’t compare me to Diego,” he said. “He was something else. Inimitable.” His dream, as expressed to Il Mattino a few years ago, was always to be Napoli’s Totti or Del Piero. Only three Neapolitans have ever won the Scudetto with their hometown club and being from Naples brings with it extra, often suffocating pressure. To deliver it, the first in more than quarter of a century, would make him immortal in football terms.

Can Insigne fire Napoli to Serie A glory this season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below