Zizou — the butt of world media

The Azzuris beat Les Bleus to lift the coveted World Cup, after outgunning them 5-3 in penalties after full time and extra time ended in a 1-1 deadlock.

The final was the final game for Zidane who had announced his retirement after the World Cup.

The French sports daily L’Equipe wrote: “This morning, Zinedine, what do we tell our children, and all those for whom you were the living role model for all times?”

L’Equipe’s editorial compared Zidane and his best World Cup moments to boxer Muhammad Ali’s heroics in the ring. “But neither Ali, nor Pele, nor (Jesse) Owens, nor any other great hero of their standing, the standing that you were on the verge of joining, ever broke the most elementary rules of sport like you did. It was your last image as a soccer player, Zidane. How could that happen to a man like you,” L’Equipe wrote.

Le Parisien newspaper said: “The blue angel was transformed into a demon. He can’t exit this way, it’s impossible. This exit from football is unworthy of him. This morning, the sense of incredulousness is still there.”

“A final and odious headbutt. We were left speechless by such stupidity”, stated Figaro while La Montagne stated: “He is prone like all of us to weakness and anger.” La Republique du Centre, joined in by saying: “Too much pressure, too much worshipping of a player who was made for a quiet, simple life,” while L’Est republicain thought “Zidane botched his exit.”

AP’s headlines read: “Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt in his final game turned Italy’s fourth World Cup triumph into little more than a sideshow.” “Zidane has now gone. Zidane the soccer genius will be missed. Zidane the head-butting thug won’t be.” Franz Beckenbauer said he was stunned by Zidane’s reaction. “Something must have been said to him but he weakened his team and we know how sensitive the French are when they lose their captain.”

French President Jacques Chirac, however, who watched the match at Berlin’s Olympiastadion, defended Zidane saying: “I don’t know what happened, why Zidane was punished. But I would like to express all the respect that I have for a man who represents at the same time all the most beautiful values of sport, the greatest human qualities one can imagine, and who has honoured French sport and, simply, France.”

Yesterday, Zidane’s agent said the headbutt came after Materazzi made a “very serious” comment to which Zidane reacted. “He told me Materazzi said something very serious to him but he wouldn’t tell me what,” the unnamed agent told BBC Five Live Sport.