SoccerWeird But True

Zinedine Zidane’s Infamous Head-Butt Is Now A Larger-Than-Life Statue

You know the story. 2006. World Cup final. France vs. Italy. 1-1 tie. Extra time. Italy’s Marco Materazzi and French living legend Zinedine Zidane are getting into it verbally. They keep getting into it verbally. Eventually, Zidane can’t take it anymore, and this happens. Everyone’s stunned. Zizou gets sent off. Italy wins. Zidane said he did it because Materazzi insulted his family. But the hows and whys didn’t matter so much as one of football’s great careers ending like that. It’s almost tragic… so naturally, there’s now a 16-foot-tall statue commemorating the head-butt in France:

Before we say anything else, let’s take a moment to appreciate the look on Statue Materazzi’s face:

Hey, we’re surprised there’s a statue of this in France too, Marco. What’s next? Nicolas Anelka screaming at Raymond Domenech? As a Rutgers fan, all I can think is if a statue of this were erected outside outside the stadium. I might never go back. Alain Michaud, in charge of the exhibit outside the Centre Pompidou art museum in Paris, explains it thusly:

“This statue goes against the tradition of making statues in honour of certain victories. It is an ode to defeat.”

In this case, Alain… there’s a reason the tradition was doing it the other way.

[Dirty Tackle]

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