Zidane: WTF?
10 July 2006, the wee hours
The Italy-France final this world cup was pretty good. Thinking back on the game, the only thing that comes to mind is Zidane head butting Materazzi. Materazzi is the more infamous of the two for playing dirty; he probably said something, or did something, to provoke Zidane. Still, you really shouldn’t lose your cool like that in a world cup final. A player like Zidane should know that. Anyway, my team Italy won in the end. Little Italy is going crazy.
Update: I still like Zidane mind you; he’s probably one of the best soccer players ever. I think that’s what makes him head butting Materazzi so out of place. (Thanks to YouTube, you can watch 9 minutes of Zidane doing crazy shit set to trance.)
Update: Kottke is collecting links and videos about this story.
Update: The rumors right now are that Materazzi called Zidane the Italian equivilant of a not very nice word, and then went on to call him the son of a terrorist whore. (Zidane is Algerian.) If true, that’s not very classy. Materazzi denies the allegations.
Why Zidane, Why? Sigh.
by sh!ma on July 10 2006, 12:20 am #
I don’t care what they say, Zidane will still go down as one of the greats. 98 and 00 were crowning achievements, it’ll be interesting to see what he has to say for himself. Still, can’t take anything away from Italy. I mean, I do despise them…but it was good final!
by ahilan on July 10 2006, 12:54 am #
Thanks for warning about the trance. Reeeespect.
by rishi on July 10 2006, 2:49 am #
It was so absurd I now assume he intended his swan song to be a performance piece, not merely a penalty kick.
The interpretive dance headbutt. Zidane’s artistry won’t be appreciated in our time.
by haran on July 10 2006, 3:12 am #
Did you see his header in OT? Zidane had a decent game going until the 110th. :-(
by Ryan on July 10 2006, 3:21 am #
One commentator called it ‘an act of idiocy’. I think ‘wtf’ sums it up best though.
by martha on July 10 2006, 3:44 am #
I bet Materazzi deserved it. There’s absolutely no reason why Zidane would do that unprovoked.
I’m more impressed by the power he had behind that headbutt. Materazzi flew off his feet and it looked like Zidane crushed his chest in lol.
That’s just awesome.
And just as expected, YTMND delivers
by Iluvitar on July 10 2006, 1:05 pm #
I wonder if players that dive a lot have trouble interacting off the field. I mean muscle memory being what it is…do they crumple to the ground with every handshake?
by haran on July 10 2006, 2:58 pm #
Sweet, I didn’t realize he got the Golden Ball as well!
by haran on July 10 2006, 3:35 pm #
http://www.subir-imagenes.com/subir-fotos/cd6cb42db9.jpg
by Os on July 13 2006, 4:06 pm #