The love of football caught one of the most dangerous men in the Italian mafia, and Greek police arrested Vincenzo Laborta on Friday after his image emerged celebrating Napoli's victory in the Italian league.

The Italian authorities accuse Laborta, 60, of being a member of an organized crime gang in the Camorra in Naples.

Despite successfully evading capture for 11 years, he was spotted earlier this year appearing in a photo with fans celebrating in a public place in Greece where he had been hiding.

Naples Carabinieri police said: "His thinking betrayed him (and he decided to appear in public) because of his passion for football and the Napoli team."

Laborta has already been convicted in absentia in Italy of criminal association, tax evasion, and fraud.

After joint arrangements between the Italian and Greek police, he was finally arrested on Friday while riding his motorcycle on the Greek island of Corfu, and he is now in jail awaiting extradition to Italy.

If extradited to Italy, he is set to serve a sentence of 14 years and four months.

Laborta's lawyer told the Associated Press: "He has established a new family in Greece... He has a nine-year-old child, and he is currently working as a chef to make ends meet. He suffers from heart diseases. If extradited, his family will be shattered."

The Italian authorities had relentlessly pursued Laborta, closely monitoring all his financial and electronic movements and "waiting for him to make a mistake."

The mistake came last May when he couldn't control his excitement and went out to celebrate with Napoli fans winning their first league title in 33 years.

His image was indeed spotted outside a Corfu restaurant, wearing a baseball cap and waving a Napoli flag in its blue and white colors.

Italian investigators were convinced that the man in the picture was the fugitive criminal and headed to Greece to monitor him.

Italian police officers said they arrested him on Friday with the help of their Greek colleagues.

Last January, a mafia leader who had been on the run for decades was arrested after tracking his movements through Google Street Maps in Spain.