After all, both of them were born in France and grew up in Argentina. Their fathers, the two Jorges, were footballers. Trezeguet's, people forget, is an Argentine and played for Estudiantes while Higuain's used to run out for Boca Juniors, River Plate and San Lorenzo. The pair of them were hard, no-nonsense defenders in the Argentine style. In fact, Higuain joked his father is still the toughest centre-back he has ever played against.

"I wanted to do the exact opposite of what my father did," Trezeguet recalled. "He was one of those guys who wanted to destroy the beautiful game, destroy good football. But I always used to think to myself: fans don't celebrate when you destroy the game, they celebrate when you score."

Wondering what career advice Higuain might give his son if he decided to become a footballer and play in defence like his grandfather, "El Pipita" said he wouldn't stand in his way, but he would tell him this: "For me, scoring a goal and seeing 70,000 people shouting about it is a magnificent thing. I should also tell him though that those same 70,000 people can turn and insult you as well."

On Sunday, Higuain returns to Napoli for the first time since his €90 million move to Juventus in the summer. He then goes back again for the second leg of their Coppa Italia semifinal on Wednesday. "In the end love will prevail," Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri insisted. But others are not so sure. Higuain's shirt was burnt, cut to shreds and flushed down the toilet when he left. A local pizzeria announced it would slash prices to €1 in the event he got injured. Neapolitans who got tattoos of Higuain's name or his record-breaking bicycle kick against Frosinone were also offered free removals.

Juventus know what's coming. "We spoke about it with [Lorenzo] Insigne [while on international duty]," Gianluigi Buffon said. "We joked about what kind of reception Napoli will reserve for us. It's always passionate." And that's an understatement. Higuain will not only have to endure the close attention of Napoli's defenders. Il Corriere dello Sport's front page on Wednesday claims "60,000 people will be marking him." And if there's one person acutely aware of what he's going through, it's Ciro Ferrara.

Ferrara followed Marcello Lippi to Turin in 1994 after 10 years at the San Paolo. Initially the crowd welcomed them both back with rounds of applause, showing the generosity of spirit Sarri expects when Higuain re-enters the arena at the weekend. "Then things changed," Ferrara explained. "Maybe it was a generational thing. The younger fans remembered me only as a Juventus player and not the full-back who won the title with [Diego] Maradona."

With Higuain, though, the circumstances are different. Ferrara was the local boy sold out of necessity as Napoli started to hit financial trouble. Higuain, by contrast, didn't have to go. He could have turned down Juventus. But increasingly fed up with Napoli owner Aurelio de Laurentiis and winning minor silverware, he chose to leave as soon as Juventus made clear their intention to pay his buyout clause.

"From the outside, you look at Juventus," Higuain told Il Corriere della Sera "and you say, 'OK, they're a strong team. They've won 25 games straight, etc. etc.' Then you get here and you say: 'F---.' There are players here who have won so much over the course of their careers and yet still have the hunger to keep winning. It's contagious and makes you want to keep improving. Seeing Buffon and [Andrea] Barzagli give everything for this game makes all the difference. It's this kind of mentality that takes you a long way."

Praise like that was naturally viewed as criticism of Napoli in some quarters. It didn't go down well. Nor did Higuain scoring the winner against Napoli at the end of October. "Pipita" then struck again in the first leg of their Coppa Italia semifinal in February. It was his 24th goal of the season.

Gonzalo Higuain has been in prolific form for Juventus since his switch from Napoli last summer.

It was also Higuain's last for Juventus. The game itself ended in bitter recrimination, as just moments after Napoli saw their own penalty appeals fall on deaf ears, Juventus went up the other end and were awarded their second of the night. In the blink of an eye, Napoli went from thinking they had an opportunity to equalise to make it 2-2 to going 3-1 down instead.

As it happened, backup centre-back Lorenzo Tonelli tweeted: "It's a scandal." The club's official account recommended: "If you're watching on RAI, turn the sound off," the implication being that their interpretation of the penalty incidents was biased. "These decisions are not debatable, they're shameful," Napoli director of sport Cristiano Giuntoli snapped. When Milan left the J Stadium in March screaming of "injustice," just as Inter had done the month before, Sarri provocatively commented: "Maybe we're all mad."

Make no mistake, these games are unlikely to go quietly into the night. Buffon has expressed his hope that football is the winner. But the antipasto has already whet the appetite for the main. Sarri edged Max Allegri to the coach of the year award on Monday, 25 votes to 22. "I was delighted to finish in front of Max for once," he joked.

Scrutiny has fallen on the number of high-profile players who returned early from international duty. Higuain and Dani Alves have been back since the beginning of the week because they were suspended for Argentina and Brazil. Barzagli, Miralem Pjanic, Sami Khedira and Stephan Lichtsteiner also got some time off from international duty. But as La Gazzetta dello Sport reported on Thursday, Juventus players still clocked up more minutes than Napoli's for their countries and also lost Marko Pjaca to injury for the rest of the season. Sarri's team should be the fresher.

Napoli beat an out-of-sorts Juventus at the San Paolo last season and, while the champions' defeats have all come on the road this season against Milan, Inter, Genoa and Fiorentina, the five-star formation they adopted in January has coincided with this team going to another level. Higuain scored six goals in his first seven games in this new system, and although he's drawn a blank in his past four, "El Pipita" always scores against Napoli. For all Dries Mertens has made it easier to forget Higuain, his ghost keeps stalking them, haunting his old club.

The San Paolo is the stage for a football game on Sunday and Wednesday. But for Napoli, the visit of Juventus and Higuain represents so much more than that. It's a chance for an exorcism.