News: Why Did Zidane Lose His Head?

From Times News Network
There was always an air of assured unhurriedness about Zinedine Zidane. No matter what the situation, he always looked in control. Defenders would make furious tackles and hack away at him. But the ball was always safe with Zidane.

He could snatch, shield, dribble, distribute and shoot - all with equal felicity and grace. He could take crunch-time penalties and bend inch-perfect free kicks. And he could make a team rally around him. Simply put, Zidane was the complete footballer.

But anybody who has closely followed the long football career of the 34-year-old Frenchman knows that he could also blend the sublime with the savage. Even during a Spanish La Liga game for Real Madrid, it was not unusual to see Zidane making a rough charge that looked uncharacteristic of the man and his game.

On Sunday night, Zidane had another momentary lapse of reason when he butted into Italian Marco Materazzi's chest. Kevin McCarra writes in the Guardian, "He had surely been provoked - there were suggestions that Materazzi had called him 'a terrorist'."

Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun also says, "There were reports later that unnamed French players told reporters Materazzi had used a racial slur to enrage his opponent."

According to a report on Brazilian television channel Globo, Zidane's violent reaction may have been provoked by Materazzi calling his sister a prostitute. Fantastico, a programme on Globo, employed lip-reading experts who said footage of the incident showed the Italian twice insulted Zidane's sister.

This wasn't, however, the first high-profile head-butting incident Zidane was involved in. Playing for Juventus in 2000, he did the same to Jochen Kientz of Hamburg in Champions League leading to a five-match suspension. And he trampled Faoud Amin of Saudi Arabia during the 1998 Cup, earning another red card.

A streak of overcompetitiveness and rage cannot be ruled out in the son of an Algerian immigrant who grew up in the rough suburb of Marseille called La Castellane, an area full of street thugs and social tension. Zidane once said, "It's hard to explain, but I have a need to play intensely every day, to fight every match hard. And this desire - never to stop fighting - is something else I learnt in the place where I grew up. And, for me, the most important thing is that I still know who I am."