The world of professional football (international variety) seems enormous.

Countries you couldn’t find on a map have professional leagues. Countries you’ve never heard of have leagues. Countries like England and Germany have about 28 tiers of leagues.

I’ve been writing from the UAE for more than two years and, admit it, most of you have no clear idea where I am. Well, they have a 12-team league here and 15 lower-division teams — in a country most people can’t find with a globe and a 15-minute head start.

Slovenia has a league. Oman has a league. Uzbekistan has a league. Moldova and Malaysia have leagues. Practically every country in Africa has one. (I didn’t bother to check Eritrea or Djibouti, I concede.)

And as enormous as this world seems, it actually is very small. I venture to say that the “Kevin Bacon six degrees of separation” rule applies to nearly every soccer player/coach/journalist/fan in the world.

The guy you’re watching play or coach … no matter your locale and no matter how unknown the coach or player may seem … can be traced back to your life in a half-dozen moves.

My personal experience?

No fewer than four of the current 12 coaches in the UAE’s top league were part of the 1990 World Cup in Italy, which I covered. My first World Cup.

I was in the same stadium with four of them at least twice.

What are the odds that they would be in Italy 1990 as well as in the UAE in 2011 … and so would I?

Seemingly long odds?

Not in the small world of soccer.

Here is the list:

—Diego Maradona. He was The Man for Argentina in 1990, and I saw him “live” at least twice — in the semifinals against Italy, in Naples; and in the final against West Germany in Rome. In the UAE, El Diego is coach of the Dubai club Al Wasl.

—Walter Zenga. Italy’s goalkeeper in 1990. I saw him in the opener, when Italy beat Austria 1-0; I saw him in Italy’s 1-0 victory over the surprisingly competitive U.S.  (Bob Gansler, the American coach, talking about a near goal by Peter Vermes, a shot that Zenga basically sat on to block: “If Zenga’s butt is a little smaller, that’s a goal.”) I saw him in the epic game with Argentina in the semis in Naples, when Maradona’s shootout PK beat him, and proved to be the decisive shot in a 4-3 Argentina victory. (I still remember the stadium falling completely silent; like I had been struck deaf.) Zenga is now coach of the Dubai club Al Nasr and is a very good quote.

—Gabriel Calderon. I saw him play for Argentina in both the semis and final. A midfielder, he started in the semis and came on in the second half of the final. He has been the coach of Baniyas for the past month or so, and tonight he declared his team’s 2-2 tie with Al Wahda to be the worst-officiated game he has ever seen, which must cover an astonishing amount of territory.

—Josef Hickersberger. He coached Austria, which was in the same group as the U.S.  His team defeated the Yanks 2-1 in Florence. I covered that match. I also saw him in the Austria-Italy opener. Here, Hickersberger coaches the Al Wahda team and is one of the most accessible officials in the league.

At least three other prominent coaches in the UAE also were at the 1990 World Cup, but I can’t say I was in the same stadium as they were. Might have been; probably wasn’t.

One is Quique Sanchez Flores, a backup defender for Spain back then who now coaches the Dubai club Al Ahli.

Another is David O’Leary, who helped Ireland reach the quarterfinals with a clutch shootout goal and, for most of last season, was the coach at Al Ahli.

The third is the former UAE national-team coach Srecko Katanec, who was a backup defender for Yugoslavia. I was in Beirut the night in September when he was fired, after a 3-1 loss to Lebanon, and I found him and his staff sitting and commiserating in the team hotel about five hours after the match.

Again, what are the odds that all those guys — seven of them, there — and me, would cycle through Italy 1990 and then be in the UAE during this one-year period?

Well … in the small world of soccer/football, the odds are far shorter than I ever imagined.