Retired France captain Zinedine Zidane can do no wrong, according to his peers in the football world following his public apology on television for headbutting Italy’s Marco Materazzi.
The 34-year-old great went on Canal+ and then TF1 TV stations in France to apologise to the world for losing his temper over jibes from the Italian centre-back in the World Cup final on Sunday, which France lost on penalties.
But although Zidane punctuated his apology by claiming he did not regret his actions, the French football world has rounded in support of their iconic talisman.
”We can sense that he has been hurt because he could have had a golden send off if this incident had never happened,” said former France coach Michel Hidalgo.
”He seems to have been offended, he saw red. He said he was wrong. You also have to say that he must be forgiven.”
His former teammate from France’s 1998 World Cup winning team, Bixente Lizarazu, also said he must be pardoned.
”It was very important for him to explain himself, to say sorry,” said Lizarazu.
”After that gesture [the headbutt] he should never have made, it is good that he spoke of provocation and I think you have to punish both players, the agitator as well as the reactor.”
Zidane himself called for the agitator, Materazzi, to be punished, complaining that while he deserved to be sent off for his reaction, it was unfair that the Italian escaped — albeit with a bruised chest — for his part in the sorry incident.
Another former French international — from the romantic years of 1982 and 1986 when France played dazzling football but each time came up short in the finals — Alain Giresse said people cannot expect a footballer to be perfect.
”We know that he is someone very humble, who is calm but has a fiery side,” he said.
”Zidane has to be good, humble, smiley, handsome … perfect basically. We ask footballers to have every quality in the world.”
Even politicians spoke out in support of the midfielder of Algerian origin.
Minister of Youth and Sports Jean-Francois Lamour said: ”I think Zidane said what we were waiting for. That is to say that he said sorry, particularly to children, teachers, volunteers who work every day to provide opportunities for the young.”
Having not had the subject of race broached in his Canal+ interview, Zidane spoke at length about it to TF1.
Materazzi was rumoured to have made racial comments alluding to Zidane’s Algerian heritage and Arab Muslim terrorism — claims refuted by both players — but it was the comments of Italian politician Roberto Calderoli that have most riled Zidane.
”Don’t you think that the vice-president of the Italian senate saying that his team beat a team of blacks, Islamists and communists is worse [than my head-butt]?” asked Zidane.
”Don’t you think that’s serious? That shocked me. My gesture was shocking but for me that is worse. When you hear that, it hurts.”
Calderoli, head of the right-wing popular Northern League party, on Tuesday reiterated earlier comments in which he hailed Italy’s defeat of France as ”a victory for Italian identity”.
”When I say that France’s team is composed of blacks, Islamists and communists, I am saying an objective and evident thing,” Calderoli was quoted as saying by the Ansa news agency.
And bringing up religion as well as colour, he continued: ”France is a multi-ethnic nation, given its colonial past, of which I would not be proud.
”It’s not my fault if certain people were puzzled to see a team which lined up seven blacks out of 11 players … and if certain players prefer Mecca to Bethlehem.”
Not quite everyone in France has given Zidane their unyielding backing, though, as right-wing weekly newspaper Minute goaded the retired star.
”Goodbye lout,” it said on its front page.
The paper had previously run an article asking its readers whether France had too many blacks in the team while claiming that the team ”made people in the rest of the world think the French were a black people where you could occasionally find some whites”. — AFP
