By PROF. Denis Dau Karam

It is admired and has been positioned as an emblem by those who work in the various newsrooms of our newspaper EL UNIVERSO. It is a jewel, with its circumference of 70 centimeters, that will accompany us until the end of this emblematic championship that is being played in Russian fields.

The current World Cup permeates all populations in the world, and links us from the early hours of the morning until the last minutes of the night. How? Watching the games on TV and listening to the analysts of this sport, who have dedicated themselves with all their intellect to assess each game in their own style.

In EL UNIVERSO, the sports newsroom is the most besieged, crowded and intense. Predictions are made, matches are analyzed, and the history of the World Cups is reviewed; calls are answered where questions "jump"; colleagues arrive with voices, suggestions, and premises, some joyful for the triumph of their team, others with a touch of bitterness. Football gives us imaginings, additives, and the most visible thing is that unity reigns among the staff.

That unity is created by Ricardo Vasconcellos Figueroa, Tonio Cisneros, Martha Murga, Guido Manolo Campaña, Roberto Espinoza, Antonio Romero, Fernando Astudillo, Ernesto Cruz, Walter Melena, Tito Mena, Juan Riera, Marco Carrasco, Alejandro Fierro, and Santiago Neumane. A whole unconditional team that fulfills its duties so that the reader can assess the verticality of each article and its point of view, which is always respected by the newspaper. Also joining this group are Jorge Barraza, Mario Canessa, Pablo Lucio Paredes, Ricardo Vasconcellos Rosado, and the writer of this column.

Without flattery. The executives of the newspaper are demonstrative in their friendship and demands; fraternity is always present, the family, no one screams, no one is the owner of knowledge; the "I" does not exist and we are sure that the only judge of our work is the reader.

Today we wear a single t-shirt. Which one? To elevate to infinity the countless incidents of this stellar World Cup, which as of Monday, July 16, will go down in history... (O)