Zizou wins Golden Ball + more
The actions that led to the end of a career
The day after Zinedine Zidane was shown the red card for his headbutt to the chest of Italian player Marco Materazzi, Zidane was named the winner of the Golden Ball award as the most outstanding player in the tournament. Zidane received 2,012 votes from journalists, narrowly beating Italian captain Fabio Cannavaro, who received 1,977 votes. The votes began being received during halftime of the Final, before Zidane was sent off. This result will no doubt leave Fifa officials embarassed, but nonetheless, red card or not, Zidane was the most deserving player. If you take him out of the French line-up, there is no way they make it out of their round of 16 match against Spain, let alone make it to the Final and outplay Italy, only to lose on penalties. If you take Cannavaro out of the Italian line-up, they would still have a great defence, so there is no way he was more valuable to his team than Zidane was to France.
In the aftermath of Zidane’s actions yesterday, there has been the inevitable chatter as to why one of the greatest players ever to play the game would react in such a manner. I am still of the belief that Materazzi said something highly offensive to Zidane and some of the initial reports, including this one from Zidane’s agent, would seem to justify my belief. There have been numerous commentators that have said that Zidane should have known better and that it was an awful display. While that may be true, anyone who has played in a competitive atmosphere can understand Zidane’s actions - especially if it is revealed that Materazzi had made rascist or similarly offensive comments to Zidane, which he obviously did.
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Notice Zidane running off, only to snap back towards Materazzi - I wonder why?
While watching the incident yesterday, it was clear that all the referees had missed the incident. This would mean that Zidane was sent off after one of the officials noticed the incident via a replay on one of the monitors. This is a theory that was also suggested by not only the French coach, but the Italian one too! While Zidane deserved to be sent off for his actions, if the referees did not notice the incident when it occurred, Zidane should not have been sent off once an official noticed the replay. Fifa will no doubt deny that the official noticed it on the replay, even if the official were to admit to Fifa that he did. French striker, Thierry Henry, pointed out that “If they want to use video evidence it’s not for one incident, they should use it for everybody and they should look at Materazzi too, Materazzi has a reputation for being a dirty player and also one who feigns injury.” This is no doubt in reference to Materazzi fondling Zidane’s chest area prior to the headbutting incident. If Fifa is going to deny the use of replay in their matches, they need to ban the stadiums from showing replays of incidents to prevent another incident like this, when a replay affects decisions made by referees.
While there is no doubt that Zidane’s sending off prevented the French from attacking in the final 10 minutes of extra time, there is no guarantee that France would have scored or won on penalties. For Zidane to be blamed for France losing the Final is highly unjustified, especially considering that France would have not been in the Final if not for his inspiriational play during the second round of the competition.
I’ll admit that I became a bit of a “Zizou” fan before the final match after reading a bit about him and his background. I also have not liked Italy since the beginning of the tournament, simply from watching their style of play because I obviously didn’t (couldn’t?) follow international soccer before the World Cup. (Don’t let that fool you though - I’ve done a fair amount of reading to catch up!!) Italy didn’t let me down in that aspect during the final - they seem to rely on making a show of everything to draw fouls (though not as successfully as in the past), and my secret suspicions that Italy were slacking in overtime to get to penalty kicks were confirmed in reading post-game reviews.
Regardless of the debate about seeing the replay as the cause for the red card, what I’m getting sick of is the people complaining about how he shouldn’t have done it, etc. Well, guess what? He got punished for it. He got what he “deserved,” no? It doesn’t get much worse than a red card. I don’t know what else people want. He can’t go back and change it, and anyone who dishes out the old “he should be above that” argument is just being pretentious or, like you said, doesn’t know what it’s like to be in that position. If they really feel that way, I hope they are also saying that the Italians and anyone else should be above trash talking and diving as a form of strategy because I’d hardly call that good sportsmanship either. Not only was Materazzi obviously running his mouth (among other things), he did so as Zidane was walking away in a clear attempt to end it. A fan at the game said they saw Buffon extensively harassing Zidane as well. I know that trash talking is a part of every sport, but multiple players on a team (known for its less than stellar sportsmanship) picking on one player for most of the game is a bit much, in my opinion. Especially if they were saying the sort of things that are being speculated about, and with the way Zidane abruptly reacted, it clearly wasn’t an insignificant or silly remark. It’s one thing to say “you suck” - it’s another thing entirely to say something offensive about a person’s child, racial background, or the neighborhood you grew up in.
I guess I just hope this brings whatever attention is needed to any issues with racism and poor sportsmanship. I hope that at the very least, Materazzi stops making such asinine comments that make it sound like he was just happily making daisy chains in the field and singing Kumbaya when Zidane attacked him out of the blue. From the things I’ve read about Materazzi in the past, as well as what he’s doing now, he should be glad that all he’s gotten is a headbutt to the chest plate. For everything to be “fair,” Materazzi should be punished as well for instigating.
Great comment.
I think for Materazzi to be punished, Zidane is going to have to come out and state what Materazzi said which, of course, Materazzi will deny. I honestly don’t see anything coming from what happened because it can’t be proven as to what Materazzi said.
Zidane was definitely punished for his actions, and he’ll have to live with that for the rest of his life. Should it tarnish his legacy? I honestly don’t believe it should. His legacy and career will speak for themselves once the history is written. Zidane was voted the best European player in the past 50 years, led his country to World Cup and European Championship glory and inspired his teammates to perform to a level in this World Cup that no-one expected them to reach. The media needs to get off his case. It’s pure speculation in regards to what the outcome would have been, I know he would have taken a penalty kick if it had have come to that, but the player that missed would also have taken one - who knows what would have happened?
And then there’s Materazzi’s father coming to his defense by saying Materazzi’s been provoked and injured throughout his career….maybe if he keeps his mouth shut, he won’t be injured so much….
Yeah if the “what ifs” start, we could also talk about that penalty non-call that would have given France a penalty kick.
I have a feeling the ref didn’t call the obvious penalty in the second half because he was ‘making up’ the penalty from earlier, which was a pretty dodgy call.
Ah…yeah I can see that.
Everybody, cool your jets. Zidane is a class act. When he is ready, he will show that his actions were in defense of the respect for family/team/soccer/heritage or the like and not out of bravado or tantrum. It is indeed amazing the support this incredible athelete is getting from around the world and his legend will be enhanced and not dishonored. There is something different and special about him.
He definitely vaulted himself into the category of one of my all-time favourite athletes.