Last night I arrived back in Lalinde to find what seemed like the entire village in the square, drinking and eating and preparing to watch the Big Game between France and Italy on the big screens put outside the little bistro.An atmosphere of festivity and excitement prevailed -- and if I had not been travelling for the past 40 hours - buses, trains, planes - and hours and hours in airports and train stations, waiting for connections, I would have joined my fellow Lalindois and watched the game with them -- but although the spirit was willing, the flesh was done for, and I had to admit defeat and come watch the game from the comfort zone of my bed.
And what a pity that turned out to be --- when the saddest of sad moments arrived -- not the penalty kick shoot out and the ultimate defeat of Les Bleus, but the moment when Zidane meted out that fatal headbutt, instead of having a crowd around me to join in shouting out our surprise and rage and disappointment, I had to quietly blink away the tears and mourn my hero......
There was no fairytale ending to Zinedine Zidane's storybook career yesterday.
The 34-year-old Frenchman steps down from his position as the greatest player of his generation, having tasted success at World Cup, European Championship and Champions League level, but alongside his three World Player of the Year awards and his La Liga and Serie A titles, Zidane's career will be forever remembered for a moment of madness on the world's biggest stage.
It was a night when his reputation was tainted forever - when he showed he could not control his temper like he can a football -- an ugly departure for someone whose artistry so often lit up the beautiful game.
As mentioned in an my earlier entry, as disappointing and shocking as this incident was, it was not the first time the dark side of France's flawed footballing genius has emerged. Zidane grew up in a tower block in a poor estate in Marseille, known mainly for its high unemployment and suicide rate and he once admitted his "desire never to stop fighting is something else I learnt in the place where I grew up".
Zidane overcame early rejection - he was born to Algerian parents but the Algerian national coach said he was too slow. His boyhood idols Marseille judged him not good enough. Instead he got his chances with Cannes, and then Bordeaux, before Juventus came calling, and there he won two straight Serie A titles and reached successive European Cup finals. The midfield maestro finished on the losing side on both occasions, but any disappointment at the defeat by Real Madrid in the 1998 final was soon erased with France's World Cup victory on home soil that summer. And then Zidane emerged as France's inspiration after a two-match ban for stamping on Saudi Arabia skipper Fuad Amin in the group stages. Skipper Didier Deschamps put his indiscretion down "to his Mediterranean character, which he cannot always control".
At the time, regretful Zidane explained: "'My nervousness and my conduct were due principally to the pressure I have been under. I will learn." -- He may not have learned his lesson but he was quickly forgiven and his two goals in the final sealed the trophy.
Zidane's image was projected onto the Arc de Triomphe and the French public called for him to be made president.
This morning the press expressed its disappointment without condemnation:
"A final and odious headbutt. We were left speechless by such stupidity" - Figaro
"This exit from football is unworthy of him" - Le Parisien
"How could this happen to a man like you?" - L'Equipe
"He is prone like all of us to weakness and anger" - La Montagne
"Too much pressure, too much worshipping of a player who was made for a quiet, simple life" - La Republique du Centre
Although everyone desperately tried to find the reason -- A reason for his action, no-one seems to be able to explain his idiotic act, but at the same time fans insisted France would not turn against him. Even France's president Jacques Chirac preferred to remember Zidane for what he had done for the country and displaying "the greatest human qualities", and French fans also turned up in their thousands to cheer Zidane and the team on their return to Paris this morning.
But Sunday was still a final reminder of the human frailty of a player who so often looked like he was from another planet.
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