I remember my father telling me that he had never thought he was going to become champion of the world three times in his lifetime. †After celebrating the 1934 and 1938 Italy's back-to-back World Cup victories as a youngster, he thought that he had been blessed enough and therefore never expected to win the most prestigious sport trophy in the world again in 1982.
After that World Cup in Spain, when Italy won its third title, I remember thinking that I would have liked to win more than once in my lifetime myself and during the following 24 years, the Italian team got very close to give me that joy, but I received some heartbreaks instead.†In 1990 we lost a semifinal against Argentina at shoot outs. Same thing in 1994 against Brazil in the final, and of course the same outcome in the 1/4 finals against France in 1998.
I started thinking that, perhaps, the three gifts that my father received†were something I was never going to be able to have in my life time.
Well, Sunday I have another opportunity, thanks to a great group of Italian players who are giving me and a whole nation the dream of all dreams in the midst of scandals and controversy that are tearing apart the Italian soccer league... to become, one more time, true CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD.
I hope I can dust off my Queen's CD Sunday night and play the song. The only song I want to listen the evening of Sunday, July 9, 2006. The same song that I listened to, broadcast †by every station, radio, TV set and car stereo the evening of July 11, 1982...WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, MY FRIENDS. AND WE'LL KEEP ON FIGHTING TO THE END. WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS. NO TIME FOR LOSERS 'CAUSE WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD!
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A man without dreams is a dead man! GO ITALY! FORZA ITALIA!!
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