Zidane’s headbutt

The talk of the sporting world is French captain Zinedine Zidane’s overtime headbutt to Italian Marco Materazzi in yesterday’s World Cup Final.  The headbutt came after a heated discussion between the two and resulted in Zidane being dismissed from his final professional game via a red card.  There has been much talk from sports columnists and online chatboards that this ending will soil Zidane’s reputation and despite his years of wonderful play, this final unprofessional moment will be his legacy.  I believe Zidane will be remembered much more for his playmaking, ballhandling, and goal scoring skills.

Here are four reasons why this headbutt will have little impact to Zidane’s legacy.

1 – Zidane’s headbutt didn’t lose the title for France.  Italy outplayed France in this final and its goal that was offsides should have been counted.  It’s also questionable whether or not the foul that allowed Zidane to score the first goal should have been counted.  Even with all goals counted as they were, Zidane only had ten minutes left in overtime after he was thrown out.  The way France was playing, I doubt he could have helped them score.  In the penalty kicks, Italy scored all five shots while France missed only one shot.  David Trezeguet, who missed the shot, would have taken a kick whether Zidane was there or not.  And really, shouldn’t some blame lie with the French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez (I call him Moby) for allowing all five goals to go in?
2 – Zidane has always had a short temper.  And the headbutt will just be one more item to add to his list of other expulsions – 1998 vs. Saudi Arabia, and earlier in this World Cup.  Zidane has always been an aggressive player and with that has come high emotions and some physical play outside the normal realms of soccer play.

3 – Zidane’s reputation as an honorable player.  Everyone makes mistakes at sometime or another and oftentimes what seperates the honorable from the scum is how they own up to their mistakes.  Within a couple of days, Zidane will probably hold a press conference or release quotes to the media saying even though Materazzi’s comments were terrible, it was no excuse for him to overreact.  He’ll say he’s let himself, his team, his country, and his sport down.  Zidane has always been an honorable guy and there’s no reason to think he’ll stop now.  Hey, he may even come out of retirement again to try to redeem himself.
4 – Maradona.  Argentinian Diego Maradona ended his World Cup career in 1994 where he was banned after two games because of ephederine doping.  In club play, Maradona left Napoli in 1992 after serving a 15-month ban for failing a cocaine test,  accusations of fathering an illegitamate son, and suspicions of ties to the local mafia.  But Goddamn that boy could play ball and people remembered him for play from his heyday.  Despite this far from glorious ending, Maradona received the most votes in a FIFA’s “Player of the Century” poll and is considered alongside Pele to be the greatest footballer of all time.

All in all, Zidane has had a tremendous career and if Maradona is to be any example of what you are remembered for – Zidane will be remembered for his glory days on the field.  And despite the headbutt, Zidane was awarded the Golden Ball for best player of the 2006 World Cup.

-Bob