BRING ME THE HEAD OF MARCO MATERAZZI

So Zizou has spoken, finally breaking his silence about that infamous head-butt during an interview on the French television station, Canal +. He mixed apology with evasion, and wore a dark green combat-style jacket draped over his shoulders -- a quietly defiant, militaristic touch. Fortunately, he didn't bring a machine gun. His message to the nation, reduced to its essentials, was: "What I did was unforgivable, and if the same circumstances were to present themselves, I would do exactly the same thing again." Unpeeling a fresh layer of vindictiveness, he all but demanded that Marco Materazzi, the Italian defender whose playground taunts provoked his assault, be prosecuted for the "crime" of saying nasty things about his family. Since Materazzi still has a career to consider, it's apparent that Zidane intends it to be a tainted, haunted one. The fact that neither player has been willing to specify precisely what was stated on the field suggests it's too embarassing to go into. In other words, it was the usual petty, hateful, macho "yo mama" crap that flourishes in pick-up basketball games without a soul in attendance as surely as it does in a soccer match eye-balled by billions. Zidane, whose public image is that of a quiet, humble man, is now blatantly trading on his celebrity in calling for Materazzi's head. Had the Italian head-butted Zidane for similar reasons, he would have been dismissed as a moron and a jerk, and deservedly so.

Ultimately, Zidane's legend is likely to be tarnished mainly in the unspoken thoughts of French citizens who'll have noticed that, in stating he had to defend his honor "as a man," Zidane swept the honor of his country to one side. Publicly, though, it will be a different story. He has already been treated to a grovelling speech from France's pathetic President, Jacques Chirac, and the nation's intellectuals have predictably rushed to his defense. Le Nouvel Observateur, a left-wing French newsweekly, applauded him for demonstrating that "dignity is more important than sport and television glory." Bernard-Henri Lévy described him as "a valiant knight," and one of the country's most famous lawyers offered a Clintonian defense of his action. All of this is due not only to Zidane's athletic prowess, but to his status as a Muslim icon in a country that, not without reason, is fearful of much of its Muslim population. Zidane's head-butt carried the faint whiff of an honor-killing, and the French elites, showing their customary spinelessness, have promptly excused it.

And what of Materazzi? A mere journeyman in comparison to the great Frenchman (albeit one with a World Cup Winner's medal, and two superbly taken goals in the final), he is now under official investigation from FIFA and will surely have to play the fall guy to preserve Zizou's aura of iconic purity -- Saint Zidane. There is an irony here, since a player of Zidane's extravagant gifts is able to flourish only when surrounded by "hard" men, by enforcers just like… Materazzi. At the Italian club, Juventus, he had Edgar "Bulldog" Davids to protect him. When his next club, Real Madrid, sold off defensive midfielder Claude Makelele a couple of years ago, replacing him with Mr. Metrosexual, David Beckham -- no one's idea of an enforcer -- Zidane's career went into free-fall.

Granted, it was mostly a wretched World Cup, marred by coaches who tried to turn strikers into an extinct species, and riddled with niggling fouls and floppers and drama queens. From that point of view, Zidane's dramatic lowering of the horns had a certain winning directness to it -- Allez les Bulls! By then the game had devolved into a typical exercise in futility, anyway, with neither side likely to score from open play if they carried on for another fortnight, so why not dispense with the ball altogether and just go at it? Enough of this merde. But unfortunately, Zidane's pseudo- mea culpa has shown him to be full of merde himself.

In anycase, his complaint about what Materazzi said to him raises an interesting question. For Materazzi claims that the stream of insults that issued from his lips did so primarily as a result of, and in reaction to, a look of "supreme contempt" given him by Zidane -- the Olympian glare of a global superstar for a relative nobody. Ouch. In other words, it's a case of hate-looks versus hate-speech. Enough to keep FIFA, and eventually the E.U. and the U.N., busy for decades.

-- Brendan Bernhard

Comments

[sadhana]

Zidanes response was immature, selfish , a coward and disrespectful to his country and especially to someone from another country who wanted the team to win. Athletes are like ambassadors for their country. It takes a courageous and brave man to walk away with pride and integrity when confronted with abuse. Someone please tell him about Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi. He owes us an apology with nothing else attached to it, no and or buts. It has made me question my judgement in choosing people of certain character.

[Doug Paulson]

Zidane was wrong, but Materazzi is a GOON and the type of player that no sport needs. His disgraceful conduct on the field has been well documented.
This incident destroyed 2006's World Cup and gave soccer/football a black eye it will take years to heal.

[TESSA]

all i want to say is that materazzi is great. he made two awesome goals and then a penalty and was also dangerous on some occasions to score again. i think this bullshit about why or what has to stop. there's no doubt that materazzi had said something but zinedine zidane's reaction is cruel and so wrong. so i think it doesn't matter what has been said or why zidane did it. why should materazzi be punished he didn't do anything wrong (not like zidane) and i certaintly believe zidane was super arrogant coz that's how he is and materazzi would have said something just like i would because i can't stand it people who are arrogant and think they are so that. NOT!!! and why the hell would materazzi say something about his mother, if this world doesn't know this already italians are mommy boys and materazzi has lost his mother at age 13 so he didn't had a mother growing up in the most important period of becoming an adult. so why would he say it. i think all the speculation is just sick its over the italians had won fairly and materazzi should've named man of the match because he did a great job filling Nesta (one of the best defenders of the world) shoe's and he did it by scoring twice, defended greatly and being a possible treath to france and to finish it off scoring a penalty which was well taken. so y'all get off your high horses. and leave it. leave materazzi alone. zidane was the one who's wrong. but because he (supposedly) is a good player everyone has to make a big deal out of it