Why? Because the dapper, still fit-looking 64 year-old man I was talking to had been a participant in what I regard as the best FIFA World Cup match ever played; certainly the best in my lifetime.

It was not a final, not even a semi-final, although many remember it as such; it ended with the elimination of one of the most thrilling Brazilian teams ever assembled after a spellbinding 90 minutes of free-flowing, end-to-end action at the Sarrià stadium in Barcelona.

Giancarlo Antognoni is today less well remembered than team-mates such as goalkeeper Dino Zoff and Paolo Rossi, a Will-o’-the-wisp striker.

But he was the leggy, creative hub of that Italian team, and of Fiorentina, the club with which he stayed almost his entire career before moving to the Olympic capital to end his playing days at Lausanne Sports.

The match in Barcelona pitted the masters of attack against the masters of defence.

Many though believed, like me watching at home between driving lessons, that it would prove a mismatch.

Italy had started the tournament slowly, as Italy often do, scraping through the first group stage after three draws by virtue of having scored one more goal than the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon.

They did then beat Argentina, World Cup holders and one of the tournament favourites.

But this was the Brazil of Sócrates and Falcão, Junior and Zico; surely there could be only one winner.

To complete the context, this was the beginning of the World Cup's great expansion, started under FIFA President João Havelange.

For the first time, a mathematically awkward 24 teams contested the finals.

A second group phase, consisting of 12 teams in four groups of three had been incorporated.

Italy and Brazil had both beaten the third group member, Argentina; but Brazil had scored one more goal.

This meant that a draw would be enough to put the yellow-shirted Brazilians into the semi-finals.

The normally defence-minded Italians had to win - a state of affairs that contributed mightily to the all-time classic that unfolded on July 5, 1982 in Catalonia.

Antognoni takes up the story:

"What was important for us was that Brazil always played to win," he tells me.

"They had a Brazilian mentality. They never played for a draw. That was an advantage for us.

"Our team was attacking and defensive at the same time. Italian defences are always the best. That is the Italian mentality. But we also had Paolo Rossi."

And indeed, as the scorer of all three Italian goals, this famous 3-2 victory, en-route to lifting the World Cup for the first time since 1938, is often regarded as Rossi's match. 

Yet, prior to his fifth-minute opener in this game of games, the predatory striker had not notched a goal in Azzurri blue since June 1979.

"He was depressed," Antognoni recalls. "But the coach, Enzo Bearzot, trusted him.

"Even if he had not scored in four [1982 World Cup] matches, he trusted him.

"And now everyone knows what happened."

Did the players trust him too?

"Yes, of course - he was a goleador, a natural goal-scorer."

After Falcão’s brilliant second equalizer, Brazil could have opted to play out for a draw over the final 20 or so minutes; had the situations been reversed, there is no doubt that is precisely what the pragmatic Italians would have done.

But instead, they pressed forward all the harder, searching for the winner in wave after thrilling but reckless yellow wave.

And, sure enough, they paid the penalty when Rossi turned in the decisive goal after a corner conceded following Antognoni's deep cross.

A couple of minutes before the end, the Fiorentina man, wearing the number nine shirt notwithstanding his position in the team, netted what should have been a game-clinching fourth for Italy.

It followed his own astute pass to Rossi, free on the right, and lung-bursting run deep into the penalty area for the return, which duly arrived via fellow midfielder Gabriele Oriali.

But the strike was disallowed - wrongly - for offside.

"It wasn't offside, it was a legal goal," Antognoni tells me.

"It was a big regret for me because I wanted to score.

"Also it was really important because it would have given Italy breathing-space."

There was worse to come on a personal level for Antognoni: in the semi-final against Poland - won 2-0 thanks to more Rossi goals - he injured his foot and had to be substituted.

"I received a good ball and put all my strength into a shot," he recalls.

"But an opponent arrived and, instead of the ball, I hit his studs and broke a metatarsal in my right foot.

"It needed seven stitches. 

"Before that though I provided the assist for Rossi's first goal."

Being unable to play in the final against West Germany - which is best remembered today for Marco Tardelli's ecstatic goal-scoring celebration - was of course a huge disappointment for Antognoni, even if, as he says, "Italy won so it was OK".

Summarising the significance of the victory three-and-a-half decades on, he concludes: "It is a big event that people still remember; even 36 years later people still remember it.

"Italy also won [the World Cup] in 2006, but most people remember 1982 better.

"This is because it was unexpected.

"Brazil and Argentina were the two favourites - and it had been so long since we had won a World Cup - 44 years.

"It was also a period in which there were political problems in Italy.

"This result changed the mood of the Italian people."

The rest of us were left, initially, with mixed feelings: exhilarated by having witnessed such a magnificent match, but also stunned and disappointed by the departure of the omni-talented Brazilians.

By the final though, given the controversial nature of West Germany's win over France in their semi-final, we were all rooting for those surprise-package Italians.