THEY were football's loudest fans, a hat-trick of soccer supporters who raised their voices to the triple glory of sport, opera and cash on the temporary terraces of the Champ-de-Mars, in what must be the most commercial classical concert of the century.
The 'Three Tenors' - Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras - appeared last weekend on a temporary stage in front of the Eiffel Tower.
The world's most popular classical artists, before one of the world's most instantly recognise-able landmarks, celebrating the world's most-watched game. If this show was not the greatest operatic performance ever, it was certainly a grand spectacle.
Watching that concert was, for many in the approximately 100,000-strong crowd, a way of feeling a little closer to the piece of history about to be enacted on another Parisian field.
The singers' connection with the World Cup started in Rome eight years ago. Traditional rivals, the three had joined together to celebrate Carreras surviving leukaemia and, at the same time, ease his financial problems.
No one had expected the CD to soar to the top of the charts and sell 23 million copies, nor that from then on these opera stars would become superstars, their appearance enough to denote that an event is somehow important.
So in 1997, Hong Kong people were 'disappointed' that Pavarotti proved too expensive a star for the handover; later this year, Carreras' name will encourage people to pay up to $5,000 to attend a fundraiser for North Korea at the Convention Centre.