With temperatures dropping and the nights beginning to draw in, Napoli have once again greeted the imminent onset of spooky season with a limited edition Halloween-themed kit.
As has become tradition in recent years, the reigning Serie A champions have created a unique strip with a ghoulish design that will be worn for a couple of games around the end of October.
Inspiration for this year's sinister jersey has been drawn from the Fontanelle Cemetery in Naples -- a cavernous ossuary carved into the hills outside the city that holds the remains of thousands of citizens who died during the 17th Century and which later became the focus of a local cult.
As such, the shirt features a black background, an all-over grey skull print and bright blue piping. It was also launched via a suitably atmospheric video shot in the Fontanelle crypt.
💀 Skulls of Naples
— Official SSC Napoli (@en_sscnapoli) October 5, 2023
✨ Another chapter of the New 3ra is now available
Presenting the special edition Halloween game, which is on sale now on the SSC Napoli webstore and eBay marketplace:
🛒 https://t.co/0C83pF2vBV
📦 https://t.co/GYJafkw4mf pic.twitter.com/bvcBnYEmHF
Napoli have made a habit of regularly producing targeted kits that coincide with various holidays and anniversaries, with last season seeing the Italian side launch quirky jerseys for Valentine's Day (including a big lipstick kiss on the torso) and Christmas (with Rudolph the Reindeer), as well as Halloween.
Indeed, the 2022-23 entry to the club's growing Halloween collection saw a screeching swarm of vampire bats added to their usual blue livery.
Napoli deployed their first macabre kit in 2021-22 that saw the team don a black shirt covered in cobwebs to help ring in All Hallow's Eve at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.
You can certainly always count [Dracula?] on Napoli to herald the start of football's Halloween celebrations.