  We investigate the connection between Color Confinement and thermal Abelian
monopoles populating the deconfined phase of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory, by
studying how the statistical properties of the monopole ensemble change as the
confinement/deconfinement temperature is approached from above. In particular
we study the distribution of monopole currents with multiple wrappings in the
Euclidean time direction, corresponding to two or more particle permutations,
and show that multiple wrappings increase as the deconfinement temperature is
approached from above, in a way compatible with a condensation of such objects
happening right at the deconfining transition. We also address the question of
the thermal monopole mass, showing that different definitions give consistent
results only around the transition, where the monopole mass goes down and
becomes of the order of the critical temperature itself.
