Zinedine Zidane, the former French captain, the greatest player of his generation, as declared by David Beckham, his former team-mate at Real Madrid, has written glorious chapters in the history of football.

But, alas, during the 2006 World Cup final, he couldn’t call it a day in a desirably graceful manner. Playing the final at Olympic Stadium in Berlin against Italy, Zidane, with a striking suddenness slammed his head into the chest of Italian defender Marco Materazzi in a desperate moment of lunacy. The player collapsed on the field and with it the hopes, the dreams and admirations of Zidane’s millions of fans across the globe who wanted to bid him adieu worthy of his legendary status.
The match referee, Horacio Elizondo of Argentina,showed a fateful red card to Zidane, ejecting him within a minute. Italy protested vehemently, and delay and confusion followed. This left France to play the final 10 minutes of overtime with 10 distraught players to lose the game on penalties.
It is alleged that the Italian player passed derogatory remark about Zidane’s sister, Lila, called her prostitute, which provoked him so much that he attacked Materazzi physically. The Italians, like the Australian cricketers, are masters of the art of sledging, psychological exploitation and trickery. The Italian players did this all the night long to the French captain. They pinched at his heels, pulled at his shirt, tried to injure his shoulder and made him psychologically so paralyzed that the maestro had to show that he had got feet of clay.
The sad happening shocked a crowd of 69,000 at Olympic Stadium and over billion soccer viewers in 207 countries across the world. Whatever be the cause of Zidane’s provocation by Marco Materazzi, a piece of sledging, a racial slur or a derogatory remark about his sister, he should never have reacted in the shocking way he did on that fateful night. It was unworthy of a legend like him to let brawns take control of the brains.
It was heart-breaking to watch him, the most lionized footballer and the most renowned Frenchman the world over, leave the pitch, football, and head into retirement in such an ignominious way.
He won the 1998 World Cup, the 2000 European Championship for France, graced 109 matches and scored 31 goals.
A saying goes in French that if Zidane plays well, so does his team. When an injury limited his performances in 2002 World Cup, the rudderless French side suffered a nervous breakdown and collapsed. France’s prospects in this World Cup looked desperate, but Zidane, who retired as an international after France’s loss to Greece in Euro 2004, announced he was returning to the battlefield.
France started the World Cup campaign with a couple of lackluster draws against Switzerland (0-0) and South Korea (1-1). Then Zidane raised his game and turned the tables upon his opponents by defeating powerful Spain 3-1, and then clinching the epic quarterfinal victory against star-studded Brazil. However, in the semi-final against Portugal, France seemed to be losing the touch, but Zidane’s winning goal restored the morale of his team and national fervor.
It was simply flabbergasting that Zidane, known for his discretion, calm and composed demeanor, inspiring leadership qualities and his out-of-the-ordinary soccer savvy, did such unsportsmanlike move that would haunt him for the rest of his life. The match started with banners like “Zizou dans la légende” and “Zizou, we love you”, but after the unfortunate incident, which also contributed to France’s defeat at the hands of the Italians, “Zizoumania” got eclipsed forever.
His winning the final of the 1998 World Cup against Brazil, and the European Championship of 2000 for France created the racial harmony and lessened the sentiments of racial-discrimination in the multicultural French society. Graffiti and rap songs declared “Zizou President” and the Algerian flag was also hoisted beside the French tricolor in the Champs Elysées. So sad that his one spur-of-the-moment blunder in the most-watched football extravaganza in the world provoked the French and the Western media to search the causes of his irresponsible behavior in his Berber Tribal origins and his harsh upbringing in Marseilles, in a family of Algerian immigrants.