Bags packed for the trip of a lifetime
For nearly 30 years I've been dreaming of going to the World Cup - the next month in Brazil promises to be an unforgettable experience
I must have seen it earlier, but the first time I can remember watching football was the World Cup final, Mexico '86. The year one Diego Armando Maradona dragged an unexceptional Argentina team to glory with some jaw-dropping moments of individual skill and one infamous bit of mischief.
I can still remember sitting transfixed on the Lego-strewn living room floor of our tenement flat, steam hissing from my mother's iron as Maradona played a defence-splitting pass for Jorge Burruchaga's winner on our 13-inch TV, before the little Argentine lifted the trophy and shook it aloft like a man possessed. Mexico City, the Azteca Stadium, the World Cup … it all seemed so far away from the south side of Glasgow that it might as well have been happening on the moon, but from that moment I was hooked - on football in general, and the World Cup in particular.
By Italia '90 I was a bona fide World Cup buff, brimming with statistics and obscure facts. Armed with a sticker album-cum-World Cup encyclopedia so large it was assembled over 24 weeks and housed in a four-inch-thick ring binder, I knew hosts, winners, scores, golden boots, appearance records and 1,001 other bits of trivia only a kid or a Mastermind contestant would bother to learn.
I pored over pages about legendary players from years gone by, the most memorable matches, the history and political backdrop of each tournament. I traced with my finger diagram reenactments of the greatest goals, from Eusebio to Tardelli, Carlos Alberto to Archie Gemmill. And, of course, I watched the tournament with religious devotion, filling in my wallchart every step of the way.
Almost 25 years later, that passion burns as brightly as ever, but now the binder full of stickers has been replaced by a dossier of flight confirmations, hotel bookings and garishly coloured tickets to games up and down the country. A week and a single game in Germany 2006 was a taster, but a month in Brazil and at least eight games in five cities is the realisation of a lifelong dream. My native Scotland may have failed to qualify for the fourth tournament running, but that does little to take the shine off what is set to be the most intriguing World Cup of the modern era.
There is something special about World Cups in Latin America, Brazil being the first of those in almost 30 years. Maybe it's the fanaticism of the fans, the trickery learned on the streets, the searing heat or the whiff of danger, but there's an intensity about South and Central American football that is quite unlike anywhere else. Maybe it's rose-tinted glasses and the haze of youth, but Mexico '86 seems magical in a way that subsequent tournaments have never quite lived up to - but Brazil 2014 might do.
The binder full of stickers has been replaced by a dossier of flight confirmations, hotel bookings and garishly coloured tickets to games up and down the country
Without doubt it is the most intriguing backdrop to a World Cup that I can recall: the anticipation of a tournament hosted by the nation that has dominated the world game in style for much of the past 60 years in sharp contrast to the angry protests from Brazilians over the US$11 billion cost and construction projects so far behind schedule that some are doubtful to be completed even by the 2016 Olympics.
Then there are the teams and players. The hosts have a side packed with not only their typical flair but also defensive steel refined in Europe's top leagues. For holders Spain, it's the last hurrah for the golden generation who turned the country from perennial also-rans to World Cup winners and double European champions.
And most intriguing of all are the fortunes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the finest players of their generation vying to be considered among the greatest of all time, a goal that would be cemented by a World Cup win.
Will the protests boil over into violence and take the sheen off Fifa's greatest cash cow, or will football restore harmony - at least for a while? Maybe I'm naive, but I believe the latter - especially if Brazil live up to their red-hot favourites tag and bring home the cup for a record sixth time. One thing seems certain - it's not going to be boring.
Samba soccer or civil unrest, the world in motion or a country in meltdown? The journey starts here.
