“Why is a museum this good all the way out here?” Pondered Destination Calcio. Several members of the team had made the trek out to Nola, some 45 minutes east of Naples, on a steamy late summer afternoon to view one of the best football museums in the country. 

Having been to the Diego Maradona museo a mere 24 hours earlier in the heart of Naples, a stone’s throw away from the famous mural in the crowded and — at times — claustrophobic alleyways of Quartieri Spagnoli, the silence as we pulled up to the Antonio Cammarota museum was a stark contrast.

Situated within a nondescript industrial estate that wasn’t exactly the easiest to find, even with the guidance of Google Maps, the lack of people was hardly surprising. There was no hustle and bustle here.

Yet what we discovered inside was every Napoli fan’s dream: shirts from every era of the club’s recent history, from the 1960s through the bleak period of the ‘70s, and into the Maradona-induced halcyon days in the ‘80s, the slow descent into bankruptcy in the ‘90s and early 2000s and finally to the modern era.

Whereas the Maradona museum, naturally, showcased things only Diego wore, touched or sat on, the Antonio Cammarota Museum covers Napoli the club.

The sheer number of shirts is staggering, from club legends Edinson Cavani, Marek Hamsik and Paolo Cannavaro to less remembered names like Eduardo Vargas, Ivano Trotta and Gianluca Grava. All are displayed in a vast cabinet in the left-hand corner of the sprawling room – similar to the one former Napoli boss Luciano Spalletti has in his own home.

Many of the heroes from the Scudetto-winning side of 2023 were also showcased, with shirts from the likes of Piotr Zielinski, Victor Osimhen and Giovanni Di Lorenzo among them – each one of them either match worn or match issued. 

Some remained unwashed with mud stains visible, which was the case for Frank Zambo Anguissa’s shirt from the title-winning campaign.

Nico, the museum’s director and Francesco — the son of Antonio Cammarota — explained the origins of the museo as we met them at the reception and sipped on our complimentary espressos. Amazingly, the museum is free of charge but walk-ins aren’t allowed. instead, an appointment can easily be made on the museum’s website.

Walking through the reception into the main area, on the right-hand side Francesco pointed towards some ultra rare shirts. First was a Napoli shirt worn in Maradona’s first season in 1984-85. Napoli’s third shirt was a yellow number worn just twice that season, away to Lazio and Inter, and the one on display wasn’t just worn by Maradona, but also bears his signature, making it a true collector’s item, worth thousands.

Other rare shirts include one worn by Maradona for Argentina in a friendly against Fiorentina in 1981 at the Stadio Artemio Franchi. The legend goes that Fiorentina had the chance to sign the 20-year-old Maradona before Barcelona did, but were unimpressed by his first half display in Florence and opted to decline the chance to win his signature despite scoring two goals in the second half of what ended in a 5-3 win for the then-reigning World Champions. 

The Maradona collection almost takes up one complete side of the room, with an array of shirts throughout his legendary but chaotic time in the bay. On display were home, away and third shirts from those fever dream years, with kits from the iconic Buitoni and Mars seasons well represented. 

Beside the Maradona collection was one dedicated to the vastly underrated Brazilian striker Careca, who arrived in the summer of 1987 and almost stayed in Naples as long as Maradona, leaving after six years and 73 Serie A goals. As of yet there are no shirts from other mid-90s icons Gianfranco Zola or Fabio Cannavaro. 

For Francesco, whose main job is in IT and who met his wife at the Stadio San Paolo — now the Maradona — collecting is a hobby that gives him immense joy. An unassuming man, his passion for Napoli and the museum he’s built shines through, guiding us around and explaining how he attained many of the shirts on display.

His entry into the field was by happenstance. Cammarota rang into a radio show in Naples hosted by daily newspaper Il Mattino and spoke to then-Napoli striker Stefan Schwoch. 

Live on air, a bet was made. Should Schwoch score a hat-trick or hit 18 goals or more in 1999-00, then Cammarota would give him a PC. Schwoch accepted and 22 goals later, with promotion secured back to Serie A, the PC was duly delivered. 

Over the years he’s formed a personal relationship with many Napoli players, past and present, including the likes of Matuzalem, Antonino Asta, Claudio Bellucci, Edmundo and Cavani.

When Destination Calcio noticed a shirt from Cavani, Francesco recalled how he got said item. One evening he was on the phone with Cavani, who promised him that should he score two goals against Manchester City in the Champions League, the Uruguayan would give him his shirt. Sure enough, Cavani scored twice in a 2-1 win and made good on his promise, handing Francesco his shirt and also signing it. 

Francesco also got to spend a day with Maradona himself in 2017, when a musical about the legend’s life, entitled Tre Volte Dieci (three times 10) was produced in the San Carlo theatre in Naples, the oldest of its kind in the world. It was a day which Cammarota said ‘he’ll never, ever’ forget.

After stockpiling shirts for years, he felt the time had come to share his memorabilia with the outside world. After losing his father in 2019, Cammarota decided to open the museum in the midst of the pandemic in late 2020 and named it in his honour. 

For any Napoli fan, the Antonio Cammarota museum is a must-see. The club doesn’t have an official museum, so this is the best chance to look at authentic shirts from legends of yesteryear and today; from Maradona to Careca, Christian Maggio to Osimhen and everyone in between. 

With Scudetto number four now consigned to history, it won’t be long before more shirts are added to the burgeoning museum. So the next time you’re in Naples, be sure to visit.

It’s worth the trek.