What set Zidane off...

[Lascar78]

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nor is it relevant.

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It is to me. I can understand him freaking out if he called his sister a whore and called him a dirty terrorist. My mind would be blown and tremendously disappointed in him for costing us the game if all the guy said was "shut up".

Also the sister/prostitute comments were as a results of a channel's expert lip readers looking at closeups, for what that's worth

[Popeye]

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Depends on how faithful you are in your religion. First instinct should be to forgive and forget. No one but a handful of people could have heard what he said to Zidane, and no matter who reported what, it'll never be known for sure, nor is it relevant.

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Well to muslims, religion comes first than family.

I am not sure how the other religions are, i don't want to make this into religion thread..sorry!!

[Popeye]

Ok, when you say a word "Terrorist", what is on your mind??...Muslims..right??,, specialy these days, when every single thing that happens they think it's the terrorists.

[Guest]

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As for the injury, the guy was clearly going after his injured arm.

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He "injured" his right arm . Materazzi did not grab his arm, he grabbed Zidane's jersey and just happened to go over his left arm. Here is the better angle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHW5-zMC97I...amp;t=t&f=b

[kudzu23]

I see what you're saying. But in Zidane's mind, if he knew it wasnt true, then why even retaliate? If it was true, and he didnt like the fact, then I can see him exploding in emotion for the fact of the reason and the guy exploiting it. I just dont see any possible words being worth jeopordizing the legacy of your career to many, and letting down your teammates and himself.

I remember hearing people saying the most outlandish things to Jordan when he was on the court, and it only fueled him to be more competitive, even overcoming sickness or injury.

[kudzu23]

Depends on how aware you are of world events. If all you want to see is Islamic Fundamentalism, then thats all you'll see terrorists as. I'm not minimalizing it, I'm just saying, Muslisms areNT the only people capable of exercising terrorism, so for Zidane to use it as a reason to do what he did doesnt make any sense.

[Lascar78]

yeah you can see better from that angle. Looks like the injury didn't play a part. Looks like the guy wraps him up for no reason, they start talking, and the guy says the wrong thing

[Popeye]

You are right, soccer is actually my favorite sport and i play organized soccer for about 4 years now. Yesterday we had a practice,i wore Zidane jersey and everybody was making fun out of it.

[Lascar78]

Again, I'm not arguing it that it's the right thing to do, and I'm sure Zidane himself will say that he wishes he hadn't. He is a very nice, classy guy. In some rare occasions he does lose his cool, but we're not talking about a ron artest here. The guy is a class act all around.

What I'm saying that there are lines that shouldn't be crossed, and I can understand him temporarily losing his cool (and his reason). All I'm saying is if he did say something like that, I understand and I forgive him. Before I heard any of this I was super pissed at him.

As for MJ, I'm sure he heard a lot, but for the most part my understanding of NBA trash talk even at the time is that the vast majority of it is talking trash about the players and their game. If a white player had called MJ the N* word and/or made some slavery / lynching reference, I'm not so sure he would have stayed cool.

This reminds me more of when David Robinson lost his cool after somebody yelled some racist remarks at him and he went into the stands I believe. The guy is generally a class act, but sometimes you lose it, and it's understandable if the comments are way over the line. Does anyone else remember this happening with david robinson? I'm curious, because I was positive that it happenned, but I just tried googling it and found nothing.

[kudzu23]

If he stood up because 6 people or so including himself heard his opponent say something against his religion or family relating to terrorism, and you the fans have to suffer for it, then that is really sad. All the more reason he should have just walked away. However, I can see how physical and emotional pain caused by others can be combined to make one make a bad decision in the heat of the moment. Thats great that you support him, I'm not saying I dont, I just dont support what I saw.

[Guest]

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id...681&cc=5739

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BERLIN (AP) -- Was it something he said?

With France and Italy tied in extra time of Sunday's World Cup final, Zinedine Zidane head-butted Marco Materazzi in the chest and was ejected. France went on to lose on penalty kicks.

The day after, still no one knew what the Italian defender might have said to the French star.

"The Italians did everything they could do to provoke Zidane," France defender William Gallas said.

Seconds before, Materazzi had grabbed a handful of Zidane's jersey just as a French attack on goal passed harmlessly by. The two exchanged words as they walked back up the field, well behind the play. Then, without warning, Zidane spun around, lowered his head and rammed Materazzi, knocking him to the ground.

The Paris-based anti-racism advocacy group SOS-Racism issued a statement Monday quoting "several very well informed sources from the world of football" as saying Materazzi called Zidane a "dirty terrorist." It demanded that FIFA, soccer's world governing body, investigate and take any appropriate action.

FIFA, which reviews all red cards at the World Cup, would not comment on the specifics.

"This is a disciplinary matter now. I can't give any statements now," FIFA spokesman Markus Siegler said.

Materazzi, meanwhile, was quoted as denying the terrorist comment.

"It is absolutely not true, I didn't call him a terrorist, I don't know anything about that," the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Materazzi as saying when he arrived with his team at an Italian military airfield.

"What happened is what all the world saw live on TV," the Italian player said, referring to the head-butting.

Zidane's agent, Alain Migliaccio, was quoted by the BBC as saying the France captain told him the Italian "said something very serious to him, but he wouldn't tell me what."

Whatever it was, it was enough to infuriate Zidane.

"Zizou is someone who reacts to things," said Aime Jacquet, Zidane's coach at the 1998 World Cup. "Unfortunately he could not control himself. It's terrible to see him leave this way."

Even with the ejection, Zidane still won the Golden Ball as the World Cup's best player.

Zidane, who came out of retirement to help France qualify for the World Cup and said he would quit soccer completely after the tournament, got 2,012 points in the vote by journalists covering the tournament. The three-time player of the year beat Fabio Cannavaro (1,977) and Andrea Pirlo (715), both of Italy.

Zidane's red card was anything but unusual. He was sent off 14 times in his career at the club and international level.

At the 1998 World Cup, he stomped on a Saudi Arabian opponent. Sitting out a two-match ban, he came back to score two goals against Brazil in the final.

Five years ago with Juventus, he head-butted an opponent in a Champions League match against Hamburger SV after being tackled from behind.

The reaction to Sunday's outburst was mixed in France. President Jacques Chirac called Zidane "a genius of world football," and former Sports Minister Marie-George Buffet said Zidane's aggressive act was unforgivable for its effect on children watching the game.

"This morning, Zinedine, what do we tell our children, and all those for whom you were the living role model for all times?" French sports daily L'Equipe wrote.

Zidane, whose parents emigrated to France from Algeria, became a proud symbol of a multicultural France and is adored in Algeria.

In the mountains where Zidane's parents grew up, Atmanne Chelouah carried off a life-size cardboard cutout of the player at "Cafe Zizou" after the red card.

"We are very disappointed," Chelouah said. "He should have kept his cool."

But lashing out is nothing new to Zidane, who grew up playing on concrete in an impoverished immigrant neighborhood of Marseille, where fouls and insults are met with instant retribution.

Perhaps he could never shake off that you-or-me mentality.

"You can take the man out of the rough neighborhood, but you can't take the rough neighborhood out of the man," striker Thierry Henry said Sunday.

At this year's World Cup, where Zidane sat out one match for getting two yellow cards in the first round, he sent a message to his teammates. In a rare television interview, he said, "We die together."

They were ready to go as far as they could for him, yet he punished them.

"He'll carry that weight for a long time," France coach Raymond Domenech said of Zidane's latest red card.

Zidane nearly won the match with a late header after giving France an early lead with a penalty, taking two steps forward to slowly chip the ball into the air while goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon dived to his right.

It was his third goal of the tournament and sixth in the last 10 major tournament matches. He scored three at the 2004 European Championship.

Zidane's teammates had all wanted to help him to one last trophy. Failing that, they refused to kick him when he was down.

"For all that Zidane has done for the national team, you have to say 'Thank you and well done,'" said striker David Trezeguet, the only player to miss his penalty kick in the shootout.

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Dude has a temper. I would probably bet that, for a vast majority of soccer players, whatever Materazzi said to Zidane wouldn't have lead to such a malicious and pre-meditated act. Trash talking goes on all the time, Zidane probably took it too personally and really screwed up.

[Lascar78]

just about every soccer player who has had a full career has had a number of those incidents, and a number of red cards, it goes with the territory.

He is still a class act, he is not a flopper, he is definitely not a dirty player. He has lost his temper and retaliated against dirty players 4-5 times over a very long career that was the best of anyone in his generation. 14 ejections for as long as he's played is not much at all. The problem is that he's so good that the other team's dirty players are always coming for him, trying to rile him up, trying to injure him all game long. So again, we've seen his temper flare a few times in the past, and he's a tough guy, but this is no loose canon. I wonder how much more punishment he would have taken over his career if he didn't retaliate from time to time.

It's a shame to see him go out like this, that's for sure.

[shug94]

[Lascar78]

As far as the funny ones go, I think this is the funniest

[Lascar78]

More smoke

Times Online

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Read my lips: the taunt that made Zidane snap

BY Matt Hughes

Our correspondent finds out what may have caused a great player to lose his head in such spectacular style

Watch video reports at Times Online TV

WITH his monkish mien backed by a sense of brooding menace, Zinédine Zidane has always been something of an enigma, so it is perhaps fitting that the final act of his career should be the source of such mystery.

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Click here to find out more!

Just why did a man blessed with complete control of a football lose his head in such a violent manner at such a crucial moment, boring it into the chest of Marco Materazzi?

As L’Equipe summed up the moment of madness with a headline of “Regrets Éternels”, a day of endless questioning began. With many conflicting versions of events circling on the internet and in the world’s media, The Times enlisted the help of an expert lip reader, Jessica Rees, to determine the precise nature of the dialogue that caused Zidane to react in such a manner.

After an exhaustive study of the match video, and with the help of an Italian translator, Rees claimed that Materazzi called Zidane “the son of a terrorist whore” before adding “so just f*** off” for good measure, supporting the natural assumption that the Frenchman must have been grievously insulted.

As the son of two Algerian immigrants, the 34-year-old is proud of his North African roots, dedicating France’s 1998 World Cup win to “all Algerians who are proud of their flag and all those who have made sacrifices for their family but who have never abandoned their own culture”, so such a slur would certainly explain, if not justify, his violent response.

When asked about the allegations on his return to Rome, Materazzi issued a vehement denial, while sources close to the player emphasised that he had not been accused of racism before, pointing to his close friendship with Obafemi Martins, the Nigeria and Inter Milan striker.

“It is absolutely not true,” Materazzi said. “I did not call him a terrorist. I’m ignorant. I don’t even know what the word means. The whole world saw what happened on live TV.”

Zidane was understandably keeping his counsel, but his agent, Alain Migliaccio, indicated that he had responded to extreme provocation. The Real Madrid midfield player is expected to break his silence in the coming days, with his dark mood at least temporarily lifted by yesterday’s news that he had won the Golden Ball as the player of the tournament.

“I know Zizou well and even though he hasn’t told me exactly what Materazzi said, I know that he was provoked,” Migliaccio said. “Materazzi said something very grave to him, I don’t know what it was.

“When he is calmer, he will speak. When I saw him at 2am he was very sad, he didn’t want to end his career like this. He was simply very sad. He was very sad for everything that happened, but this is life. He is a human being, not a god.”

With little in the way of hard evidence, Giovanni Melandri, the Italian Minister for Sport, was still urged to investigate, although such demands seem to be down to political opportunism rather than anything else. “If it were true, it would be a reprehensible act, which would not reflect the fair play that Italy and Materazzi himself showed during the tournament,” Riccardo Villari, a centre-left MP, said. “It would risk uselessly inflaming passions and creating tensions.”

With the racial allegations particularly sensitive, the other speculative suggestions as to Materazzi’s offending words were no less offensive, also focusing on Zidane’s father, Smaïl. Zidane is close to both of his elderly parents, who live in a house he bought for them outside his native Marseilles, and is thought to have phoned his mother every day during the tournament.

Another explanation being widely circulated yesterday was that Materazzi had insulted the memory of one of Zidane’s closest confidants and former coaches, Jean Varraud. The former AS Cannes coach died of cancer shortly before the tournament.

With Materazzi denying all such charges, sources close to the Italy defender even claimed that he had been insulted. Several Italian newspapers claimed yesterday that Zidane had insulted the Inter Milan player’s mother, with Materazzi retorting that the Frenchman “made love to his sister”.

Giuseppe Materazzi, the Italy player’s father, added to the intrigue by insisting that his son had been provoked. The 32-year-old is thought to be sensitive when it comes to the memory of his mother, who died when he was a young boy.

“Marco told me to enjoy the moment and put off all explanations on the incident until he returns,” Materazzi Sr said. “He just told me he had been provoked, the way he often has in recent years. It’s as if they have it in for him. In the last two seasons, Marco has always been on the receiving end, as you can see from his injuries.”

Fifa insisted that video replays played no part in Zidane being sent off. The incident was missed by Horacio Elizondo, the Argentine referee, and his assistants, but spotted by Luis Medina Cantalejo, the fourth official from Spain. "The fourth referee saw the incident with his own eyes and told the referee and the assistant referee through their headsets," Andreas Herren, a Fifa spokesman, said, adding that the fourth official had no access to video replays.

Amid the furore, one unpalatable truth has been lost — that Zidane has acted in this way before - as a record of 14 sending-offs in his career testifies. And as Varraud has recalled, his protégé’s first weeks at Cannes were spent mainly on cleaning duty as a punishment for punching an opponent who had mocked his ghetto origins.

Perhaps the only person unsurprised by Zidane’s final fall from grace was the French rock singer, Jean-Louis Murat, who prophetically encapsulated the essence of one of his heroes, a street fighter from a Marseilles council block who could play football with god-like grace.

“Nobody knows if Zidane is an angel or demon,” Murat said several years ago. “He smiles like Saint Teresa and grimaces like a serial killer.”

An enigma to the very end.

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First Marco Matterazzi called the French star the Italian equivalent of 'n*****', and then insulted both his mother and his Muslim background by saying he is the 'son of a terrorist whore.

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[AHF]

If that is what was said to him, the biggest pity is that he didn't wait until after the game and then punch him out. Clearly, his opponent was trying to provoke him into losing his cool and succeeded. Comments about sisters or spouses being whores, etc. are very common among athletes in the US and elsewhere. Whatever was said, it must have really caused something in Zidane to snap because that was completely outside of the play and outside of even normal retaliatory behavior in a soccer game.

It is a real shame because Zidane played another outstanding game and nearly won it for the French in OT.

[Lascar78]

Agreed

[drzachary]

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I could be wrong but I believe that there's a difference between headbutting someone who insulted you and killing massive amounts of civilians for political goals driven by religious fanatacism

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I'm fairly certain you're not wrong.

[drzachary]

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Why are terrorists supposed to be Muslim? There are Chechen terrorists, Philipino terrorists, Columbian terrorists, and American terrorists, and I'm sure many more. If he bought into a sterotype then he is dead wrong.

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I don't believe there's a causation neccessarily, but the correlation is there. I'd guess that out of every 100 terrorists, 90 are Muslims?

[drzachary]

Did you play the flash game yet?

http://tonaz.altervista.org/zidane.html