For many years, the term bandiera (literally meaning standard-bearer) has been used in Italian football to describe a loyal, one-club player that has come to represent that team in every way. The likes of Giancarlo Antognoni at Fiorentina, Francesco Totti at A.S. Roma and A.C. Milan stalwart Paolo Maldini have all received universal plaudits for their stellar careers and absolute loyalty to their respective clubs, but what does it take for a foreign player to become an Italian bandiera?

The key to this lies in adaptability. 

Gabriel Batistuta was always a shy person, and had been reluctant to move away from his native Argentina and even start a career in football in the first place. Yet he fell in love with Florence and Fiorentina, and the Renaissance city has become his second home where three of his four children were born.

“Batigol” may not have been a one-club man, but his name will be forever synonymous with Fiorentina and those famous purple shirts. 

It has become exactly the same scenario with Napoli’s Slovakian captain Marek Hamsik, who will leave the club after 12 years to join Chinese Super League side Dalian Yifang later this month. No-one will begrudge him one final payday after his extreme loyalty to the Partenopei, and he will be forever associated with those azzurri-blue shirts.

Just as Batistuta is an honorary Florentine, Naples has adopted Hamsik as one of their very own, but this does not happen by accident. He may have toppled Giuseppe Bruscolotti and the great Diego Maradona in the all-time Napoli appearances and goalscoring charts (520 and 121, respectively), but this is not the only reason why he is adored in the Campanian city. 

It all comes back to the question of how Hamsik has adapted to his surroundings since moving to Italy when he signed for Brescia back in 2004. “Gradually, the Italian way of life became my way of life,” the Slovakian admitted in his interview with The Players’ Tribune in 2017. “And on the football pitch, I adjusted my game, as well.”

It would not be the first time Hamsik would tweak his playing style, as this complete midfielder was deployed by then-boss Walter Mazzarri in an attacking trio nicknamed the “Three Tenors,” alongside Ezequiel Lavezzi and Edinson Cavani. Technically gifted enough to play anywhere from deep-lying playmaker to supporting striker, Hamsik was willing to play any role he was asked, and ultimately learned to be a vital part of Maurizio Sarri’s precise passing game when the coach arrived from Empoli in 2015. 

Such readiness to give whatever is needed will always be a trait which endears players to the fans. Yet Hamsik went that extra mile in terms of being so keen to understand the fans that he eventually became one of them.

In one-team cities like Naples or Florence, players often feel the rabid enthusiasm of the entire place, one in which those who populate it unite together to celebrate their own identity. “That love I felt in Brescia was almost nothing compared to the passion of Napoli fans,” the midfielder continued in the same interview. “In Brescia, I was just a young boy who nobody really knew. But in Naples, I couldn’t get a coffee without meeting a Napoli fan. ‘Napoli fan’ is almost meaningless in Naples. If you’re from Naples, you are a Napoli fan.”

Such understanding of how a group of fans feel is paramount to the mutual adoration, and contributes to a story that can be recognized by supporters of other teams in the league and indeed all over the world. Hamsik is one of those men and there is no doubt how sorely he will be missed in Naples.

“When we won the Coppa Italia in 2012, I saw what Naples could be,” admitted Hamsik. “It had been 25 years since Napoli had won that trophy, and after our win in Rome, I saw a different side of the city. It was… mad. I think that’s the best way I can describe it. Like a really, really good mad. The best type of mad. 

“When we returned from Rome, there were people pouring out into the streets from every apartment, flags hanging from every window in the city—it was magical. When you win here, it’s better than winning anywhere else in the world. Because, we as players have not just won, but we as a city, as a people, have won. That’s what makes it so special.”

Hamsik’s move to China will make no difference in how he is thought of. Just like Batistuta, Hamsik now has three Neapolitan children. He has roots there, a precious unbreakable bond that will ease the natives’ fear that he will never return. By adapting in the best way possible to his surroundings, Marek Hamsik understood how special this football team is to the supporters, but perhaps he will never fully comprehend just how special he is to them too.

Chloe Beresford specializes in Serie A for a number of outlets and can be found on Twitter and on Facebook via her page CalcioByChloe.