Sinner is bluer than all the Azzurri: the tennis player from Alto Adige has earned the title of Neapolitan king.
Someone does it the old-fashioned way, respecting tradition to the fullest. Someone else prefers, to the usual representation, something a little more modern and less conventional. A sign that the nativity scene, like everything else, is also perfectly adapted to changing times and evolving tastes.
The nativity is not to be touched, that one is a must, but the outline is: on that one can play as one sees fit, and there are many, therefore, who opt for something a little crisper. That’s why, along Via San Gregorio Armeno, figurines representing personalities from TV, sports, fashion, music and so on are in vogue. Beautiful, for goodness sake, the bakers putting perfectly leavened bread to bake, the shepherds herding sheep, the washerwoman doing laundry down by the river. The desire for change, however, is great, and that is why VIP “reproductions” on a scale are practically flying off the shelves.
And guess what, as told by one of the master nativity scene makers in Naples to Il Fatto Quotidiano, is the best-selling figurine in Christmas 2023? If you have no idea, think back a bit to the year on which the curtain is about to fall and strive to remember which, among the many characters that connoted it, was the most popular.
Sinner Spaccanapoli: everyone wants him
Some might have guessed that it is Jannik Sinner we are talking about, the tennis player who colored the whole world blue and contributed significantly to the Italian national team’s conquest of the legendary Davis Cup. It is quite legitimate, then, as we had already told you here, that in San Gregorio Armeno everyone wants him and everyone is looking for him.
(Jannik Sinner’s crib figurine (X)
Along the street of nativity scenes, so say the owners of the splendid stores a stone’s throw from the famous Spaccanapoli, customers have eyes only for Sinner. Jannik is reportedly even more in demand, which is a very significant statistic, than the players who wear the blue jersey of Napoli. Further evidence that tennis is now as popular as soccer and that football is no longer the only passion that moves Italians.
Sinner is in good company, however. As reported to Il Fatto Quotidiano by the crib master interviewed for the occasion, crib figurines bearing the likenesses of Silvio Berlusconi, Giorgia Meloni and Elly Schlein are also as token as Jannik. And those of Neapolitan neo-melodic singers are also going strong.