Exactly one day, 17 hours and 20 minutes until the first match of the World Cup will start in Munich, Germany. The most watched sport event in the world is less than two days†away and I already can feel the adrenaline rushing through my veins as it always does every time the greatest sport on the planet gets together, every four years, for its biggest and†most celebrated party!

This will be the 11th World Cup that I watch. When I started, the cup name and its design were even different. Its name was Jules Rimet, named after the first FIFA (Federation Internationel du Football Association) president.†Brazil was finally awarded the cup permanently†in 1970, after winning it three times.

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My first TV journey with the World Cup (the one I vividly remember) started in 1966. A long time, about forty years. Every four years I would sit in front of the television to watch great players enchanting fans with great skills and unbelievable talent. All their names and moves are still fresh in my memory. Moore, Charlton, Hurst and Owen from England; Eusebio and Torres from Purtugal; Pele', Rivelino, Jairsinho, Tolstao, Gerson, Ronaldo and Romario from Brazil; Muller, Beckenbauer, Overmat, and Braitner from Germany; Cruijff, Neeskens, Rep, Suurbier, Krol, Van Basten, Gullit and Berkamp from Holland; Maradona, Kempes, Rocke, Passarella and Caniggia from Argentina; Rossi, Bettega, Tardelli, Cabrini, Causio, Conti, Zoff and Baggio from Italy, Platini, Giresse, Tigana, Zidane, Deschamps and Thuram from France, and many, many more.

Of course, the sweetest memory belongs to 1982, when Italy won its 3rd World Cup in Spain. I remember walking the streets of my home town, Bologna, in a trans the evening of the final. Hundreds of thousands of people dancing, diving into fountains, blowing their car horns, and a vivid memory of a soccer ball going up and down, launched up in the air and caught countless times by the two hundred thousand fans celebrating in the major square of the city. My heart was at peace. I was completely content. I touched the heavens and I will never forget it.

And you know what? Nobody got hurt. Nobody broke anything. No cars burned or shattered shop windows nor looting. Just a bunch of strangers hugging each other and crying together for something that an entire nation had waited for for more than 44 years!

For a person like me who gives most of his awaken moments (as well as some sleeping ones) to the sport that loves so much, that day meant the world to me. A feeling of accomplishment that it's impossible to describe unless you have felt it, in your heart, for anything in life.

My wish for the soccer World Cup this summer is to be played fairly, watched passionately, and celebrated peacefully. The most celebrated sport in the world can and must do this, as it did for me more than two decades ago.

 It's now only one day, 16 hours and 35 minutes away........

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