Read my lips: the taunt that made Zidane snap
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
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::nobreak::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.
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.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-26029-2263995-26029,00.html
