Despite more than three decades of tireless efforts, the nature of high-temperature superconductivity (HTS) remains a mystery. A recently proposed long-distance effective field theory, accounting for all the universal features of HTS and the equally mysterious pseudogap phase, related them to the coexistence of a charge condensate with a condensate of dyons, particles carrying both magnetic and electric charges. Central to this picture are magnetic monopoles emerging in the proximity of the topological quantum superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) that dominates the HTS phase diagram. However, the mechanism responsible for spatially localized electron pairing, characteristic of HTS, remains a puzzle. Here we show that real-space, localized electron pairing is mediated by magnetic monopoles and occurs at temperatures well above the superconducting transition temperature $T_{mathrm c}$. Localized electron pairing promotes the formation of superconducting granules connected by Josephson links. Global superconductivity sets in when these granules form an infinite cluster at $T_{mathrm c}$ which is estimated to fall in the range from hundred to thousand Kelvins. Our findings pave the way to tailoring materials with elevated superconducting transition temperatures.
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