Kali
4-4-2

The occasion was an Italy-Paraguay match played in Parma, a pre-World Cup friendly remembered mainly for a bicycle kick goal by Checco Moriero assisted by Dino Baggio and the eagerly awaited presence on the field (a poor performance, to be honest) of goalkeeper-goalscorer José Luis Chilavert, whom we couldn't wait to see take a free kick from the edge to show us how good he was with set pieces.

However, focusing on that, I would overlook the main reason for that match, which 22 years later is still less remembered than Moriero's goal and an overweight Chilavert missing all his challenges. It was Nizzola, then president of the FIGC, who announced it in the pre-game conference.

That evening, in fact, Claudio Baglioni was going to celebrate the centenary of the Football Federation by presenting at Tardini – and in world premiere – Da me a te: the official anthem of Italy for France '98. He presented it accompanied by a symphonic orchestra, flaunting a modern yet sober look, still far from the cyborg-Matrix turn of Cuore di aliante.

Perfectly encapsulating national pride and good feelings, the performance offered heart-wrenching emotions, but not as much as the related music video. Which showed Baglioni at the piano inside an empty Olympic Stadium with a wet track (had it rained?), and images of a park match among children, with parents and grandparents cheering from a bench. Very much in the style of American TV shows with the inevitable "vai campione!" - we imagine - as background.

Were it not for the glorious images of our football past, aptly evoked by the direction.

The children's match, coincidentally, was an Italy-Germany game. Perhaps to teach the children from the start to recognize the enemy? (with all due respect to good feelings). But let's leave aside subliminal messages, just this once.

We always get emotional, after all, with World Cup anthems. They are an unmissable occasion for gathering. Sometimes we laugh too, yet they remain in history – how could one forget GAZZA dueting with Bernard Sumner (with John Barnes rapping) in the soundtrack of the magical English nights of '90? Undoubtedly, one of the highest points in both their careers.

Anthems to be consigned to the annals and anthems already consigned to oblivion. Almost no one remembers, for instance, Cuore azzurro (Noi con voi, voi con noi: per un sogno che non muore mai), the anthem by the Pooh for Germany 2006. Literally buried by the spontaneous po-po-po-po-po-po-po graciously provided by Jack White, not to mention the zalonian Siamo una squadra fortissimi to the chorus of "give us back the Mona Lisa."

But let's not digress.

Because in that '98 of dreams shattered on the crossbar of Stade de France with Barthez beaten (we all hoped for it, on Lizarazu's mistake), there was not only Italy and not only Baglioni. Other peoples were dreaming to the notes of their own anthem. But each with their own national spirit.

Like Bulgaria...

The Bulgarian anthem for France '98 was very different from the Italian one. If our video started with the image of a park match among children, theirs started with the image of a heel. Inside a strip club.

The flag bearer for the occasion was a newcomer to the revived Čalga scene, that music (with trumpets and trombones) almost always identified with Bulgaria, though heavily contaminated by klezmer and Turkish music. Opposed and banned by the Zivkov regime, Čalga resurged in the '90s by popular demand (and with a string of hits).

Around that time, Kali debuted, the pseudonym of Galina Dimitrova Ivanova. Being a Galina with a great passion for India, the choice of moniker was almost obvious.

To her, the local Football Federation entrusted the honors and burdens of the anthem, titled 4-4-2 and to be read as cet'ri cet'ri dve. Even though Bonev's system was more of a 4-3-1-2, with Balakov (number 10) at the top of the midfield triangle supporting Hristo Stoichkov (the Legend) and Ljubo Penev (the striker).

Yet, during the 3 minutes or so of the clip, the differences between a classic 4-4-2 and a 4-3-1-2 with Balakov at the top become slightly secondary. And for reasons unrelated to football.

The style is that typical of Bulgarian clips from the '90s: rough editing and local TV quality, including a random selection of moments from the great run in USA '94. Among them, Stoichkov's penalty against Greece and the powerful left-footed strike, again by Stoichkov and who else, against Mexico in the round of 16.

Plus the singer (not in heels and décolleté but tracksuit) filmed kicking a ball into the air in the center of a training field. Just to get into the match-ambience, just to smell the World Cup dream.

The ambitions for the world event were high, at least as much as ours. In '94 it was fourth place, after all, driven by Hristo, the Ballon d'Or winner. In France, they were aiming for the final, no half measures. "These guys will be world champions under the Eiffel tower," Kali sings – defying superstition. We are the strongest, who can stop us.

Meanwhile, they are stopped by Paraguay with Chilavert, drawing 0-0 in a match I have no memory of, because (perhaps due to the scorching weather and the post-lunch time) I remember sleeping from about the tenth/twelfth minute of the first half.

The 4-3-1-2 (4-4-2, pardon) is atrophied by an embarrassingly slow maneuver, Hristo appears out of shape, the game lacks cohesion, and the attack is sterile. But it is known, it's a World Cup rule: all the big teams struggle at the start.

After the second match, Bulgaria is at the bottom of the group with 1 point and 0 goals scored. They need a (hopeless) feat in the last match against Spain. Necessary, if they want to reach Paris and lift the cup on the Champs Élysées.

A feat that doesn't happen: they concede 6.

Stoichkov (breathless and walking at a snail's pace) is substituted at halftime, marking the end of an era.

To date, that is still Bulgaria's last game in the final stages of a World Cup. Never qualified again.

Kali, on the other hand, had a hugely successful career back home. Today, she is still one of the leading ladies of the Bulgarian hit parade. Even though Čalga is increasingly diluted with reggaeton, but to keep up, that's needed too.

She hasn't sung 4-4-2 anymore.

And not because Bulgaria plays with a back three today.