PARIS— You want to feel the breath of optimism, to feel good about the world and its players? Wednesday in Paris, at the start of a World Cup, must sway with that kind of enthusiasm, for where else might we shelter from a world of atomic bombs and atrocious daily news about man's intended inhumanity to man?

When Scotland, a small country, kicks off at the Stade de France against Brazil, the most populous and the best of the leading soccer countries, we should begin to feel the strange but potentially beautiful grip of a simple game that 200 million people of whatever creed or color or religion enjoy playing.

They cannot all be Brazilians. Scotland's professionals cannot play ball the way Brazil does. But there is the first wonder of this sport: Scotland can scare Brazil, it might just hold or even beat the best on earth and that would create a frisson of excitement that even Parisians would find irresistible.

Pele, no less, is concerned about Brazil. The finest player who ever performed is a middle-aged man now but still brimful of childlike enthusiasm for the sport that took him from poverty to acclaim.

"As individuals, no doubt my country has the best players," he said Tuesday. "But I worry for them as a team. Unfortunately they don't have time together, they don't have teamwork. So the first game is very important for psychological reasons. It is supposed to be easy because Scotland plays only defensively, but remember Colombia?'

In 1994, Pele, in company with many, believed Colombia was the hottest team. It had beaten Argentina, 5-1, in Buenos Aires, beaten Brazil, suggesting that its collection of stunning, often maverick players, could take on the world at USA '94.

It failed to beat the host nation in round one. The tragic consequences of that game — Andreas Escobar was shot dead in Medellin because he had the misfortune to score the only goal into his own net — has been a shadow across soccer ever since.

Pele's World Cup memories are better than that. In 1958, at 17, he became the youngest World Cup winner and began a career that made him the most admired soccer player. Indeed, in Paris on Tuesday he joined Nilton Santos and Carlos Alberto, two superb Brazilian fullbacks, and Alfredo di Stefano, a complete Argentine master of the game, at lunch.

All four were part of a World Team of the 20th century selected by 24 international journalists at the behest of MasterCard.

The full team is: Goal: Lev Yashin (Soviet Union). Fullbacks: Carlos Alberto and Nilton Santos (both Brazil). Center backs: Franz Beckenbauer (Germany) and Bobby Moore (England). Midfield: Johan Cruyff (Netherlands), Alfredo di Stefano (Argentina) and Michel Platini (France). Forwards: Garrincha, Pele (both Brazil) and Diego Maradona (Argentina).

All those individuals came to life at lunch Tuesday. Some of the film clips were sepia-toned; some of the memories are, too. But those who have established the traditions through their play are at their best when brought together to watch future generations try to emulate or surpass them. Di Stefano, the doyen, speaks of a game that has adapted beyond his time

He was a wonderful physical specimen, he could control the ball and control the game in any area of the field. Now balding and heavy-jowled, he feels for the youngsters who are told how they must play. Coaches, he declares, try to be too imposing.

Pele agrees. He would love to see a modern player — perhaps Zinedine Zidane, the French playmaker — lose inhibition and perform with more improvisation.

And Carlos Alberto, the only one of the four who is a coach, concludes that the physical aspects of soccer have become all-important, the commercial evolution imposes a winner-take-all strain on the coach, and there is less time to practice skills. So is modern soccer a reduced spectacle? Do not even contemplate the thought. The four representatives of the 20th century team remained bonded by an undimmed love of soccer, past and present.

"The levels are much better today," Pele said. "I tell you what excites me about 1998: All the big names are forwards. In 1990, when this decade began, you had Lothar Matthaus," the German midfielder/defender, "voted the top player. Now all the young men everyone talks about are attacking players — Raul, Zidane, Batistuta and Ortega, Bergkamp and Salas."

Hey, Pele, you forget someone? Someone almost as fresh as you were in 1958?

"No, I didn't forget," he laughed, "I save the youngest for the end because they really are the future. You should know I think Ronaldo is the best coming player in this World Cup, and I have also a lot of respect for Michael Owen, the boy from England. His speed really makes me want to play again."

The king of soccer, talking his game. Outside on the Champs-Elysee you might not know that soccer existed or that France is alive to the global love affair with the round ball. The Parisians have their windows shuttered against the light of an approaching event. But move just a small distance, to the space in the middle of the elegant grassland down the Avenue Charles de Gaulle.

What is this? Scottish fans in their kilts, barechested but playing ball. It is a fixation with Scottish youths, and infectious. Parisian youngsters watch, and then edge closer and closer until — voila — they are in the game. It happened, too, in other quarters of this aloof, self-centered city: The Scots, the Brazilians and now even the French practicing the lingua franca of kicking a ball.

To the millionaires we shall see Wednesday night and through June into July, I have a simple request: Please think of Pele and his ilk, think of the street players and just do your best to show your own worth on the big stage.

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Rob Hughes is Sports Correspondent of The Times of London.