Zidane Wins Best Player Award, I Choke On My Breakfast and Almost Die...

News Type: Event — Mon Jul 10, 2006 6:30 AM EDT

sports, football, france, italy, world-cup, fifa, zidane, cannavaro

Italy lift the World Cup and Cannavaro was their best player but the media is still hungover from the love-fest surrounding Zidane's farewell.

A fantastic career, an amazing World Cup, but he was not the best even in the French squad, let alone the whole tournament

Zinedine Zidane wins the Ballon d'Or - the Golden Ball - the best player award - for the 2006 World Cup.

Are you kidding me?

Can someone please cut through the tripe and the hype and actually point these myopic idiots in the right direction?

To set the record straight, Zidane is a fantastic player - the best midfielder the world has seen in the last decade. His form for France, for Juventus and for Real Madrid is the stuff of legends. He is, to most footballers today, the god of football.

But he clearly was not the best player in the French squad this summer, let alone the best player in the World Cup.

Two men will feel especially hard done by this decision - Patrick Vieira and Fabio Cannavaro.

People who credit Zidane with the win against Spain (and France's dominance against Brazil, Portugal and Italy) do it rightfully - he was the architect behind beating Spain - his free kick created the goal scoring opportunity before he sealed the game with a wonderfully taken goal, France's 3rd of the match.

But even in that match the foundation for him had been setup by two of the unsung stars of the French squad - Ribery's equaliser, and Henry's best impression of Rivaldo to win the free kick. And then it was Vieira who was putting in the crunching tackles along with Makelele and denying Spain any room - and it was Vieira who got to the ball and headed it in the back of the net.

But nothing can take Spain away from Zidane - he was the reason France won in the second round, fair enough. He was also the reason France beat Brazil, his flighted ball finding Henry perfectly at the far corner for the first (and last) Zidane-Henry assist of their careers. And his penalties against Portugal and Italy gave France vital 1-goal leads in crucial games.

All in all, Zidane had a pretty good World Cup...if you assume that France's World Cup started on 27th June in Hannover against against Spain...and that to in the second half, when he floated that free kick in.

What about Vieira - the man responsible for rescuing France from Group G with that goal against Togo and the wonderful assist for Henry to secure the win? What about the man who cold-checked every single Spanish attack in the second half to allow Ribery and Zidane and Henry to run riot at the Spanish defence?

What about the man who made a joke out of Brazil and Portugal?

To claim that Zidane has had the biggest impact on the World Cup is to be sentimental - to let our judgements cloud the truth and to forget that for the first half of the World Cup and for the very end, Zidane was AWOL. His contributions in between have been magnificent, but none of them would have been possible without Vieira, Makelele, Thuram and Gallas - four French players who were outstanding in every game they played - all 7 of them.

But the biggest travesty in all this has to be denying Fabio Cannavaro the best player award.

The Italian captain, dimunitive height and all, was Italy's best player throughout the tournament and the primary reason Italy did not let an opposition player score from open play in 7 matches. The two goals they conceded - one was an own goal and the other thanks to a dive from Malouda.

Without Cannavaro, Henry could have scored at least two goals.

Let me put it this way:

Zidane got France from the second round to the final.

Cannavaro got Italy to the final, and helped them WIN it.

Tell me, on that analysis...who was the outstanding player?

Unless, of course, FIFA takes into account media hype (which they evidently did when giving the best young player award to Lukas Podolski), in which Zidane should not only be winning but Cannavaro and co should be stripped of their title and France should be announced as champions.

Oh, and rescind Zidane's red card too.

Once again, nothing against Zidane - he's a fantastic player. But the whole love-fest surrounding him becomes sickening when it blinds people to reality.

Note: Zidane's red card was NOT decided by seeing video replays but by asking the fourth official who had seen the incident with his eyes. What the fourth official was doing watching Zidane is still anyone's guess...

P.S. The above post is made in anger immediately after finding out that Zidane had been voted Best Player. Considering that issue had been voted on by journalists who were covering the tournament, and almost all of them had been engaged in competitions to see who could write a better 'glorification' piece on Zidane and who could condemn Italian football in the most self-righteous fashion, perhaps it's not such a big surprise to see Zidane win. The masses, they are ignorant and stupid.

P.P.S. BBC article reporting the award, and the Sky Sports piece on the red card not being decided on video replays.

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{"commentId":198624,"authorDomain":"puglas"}

puglas

For me, I don't like seeing the award given to someone who throws a malicious headbutt away from the ball in the finals of a tournament that is supposed to be about world harmony. From what I could see, it wasn't retaliation, it was the initial blow. It also seems like France could have done a lot better in the PK with Zidane in there. So in this way Zidane may have cost France the Finals.

So even if he was the "greatest player ever" prior to the finals, his performance there was not forgivable.

{"commentId":198624,"threadId":"29492","contentId":"282798","authorDomain":"puglas"}

1 vote

#1 - Mon Jul 10, 2006 8:42 AM EDT

{"commentId":198648,"authorDomain":"shoup"}

shoup

Since you link to the BBC article, I can only assume that you read its first paragraph where it explains that most of the journalists votes were cast at the half-time.

{"commentId":198648,"threadId":"29492","contentId":"282798","authorDomain":"shoup"}

3 votes

#2 - Mon Jul 10, 2006 9:14 AM EDT

{"commentId":198740,"authorDomain":"soccerlens"}

Ahmed Bilal

Yes, I did read that.

How does it change the fact that Zidane had played a few good games and Cannavaro had a brilliant tournament throughout?

And if you're looking for further evidence of the lovefest, right now the media is going nuts in trying to explain the headbutt by saying that "it had to be something very serious for Zidane to do this".

Excuse me - one player just headbutted another in the middle of the pitch, if front of tens of thousands of people, and all you guys can do is try to find out reasons for why he was provoked?

Where are the pitchforks?

Oh right, they are for the other, lesser players.

If it had been any other player than Zidane (witness Beckham's red card against Argentina in 98, where he was being provoked but still ended up being vilified for the next couple of years), the public would have complained of the barbarity of the act.

Personally I'm not averse to violence on the pitch. But hypocrisy and double standards make me sick.

{"commentId":198740,"threadId":"29492","contentId":"282798","authorDomain":"soccerlens"}

2 votes

#2.1 - Mon Jul 10, 2006 10:16 AM EDT

{"commentId":198672,"authorDomain":"rutty"}

David Rutt

I'm with you on Cannavaro - he actually made a couple of errors in the final but all-in-all he was by far and away the finest player in any team at the world cup. He was the keystone on the Italian defense and the main reason why Italy got through some pretty sticky games early on.

I also thought that Jens Lehmann should have had a mention too - best 'keeper of the World Cup for me.

{"commentId":198672,"threadId":"29492","contentId":"282798","authorDomain":"rutty"}

1 vote

#3 - Mon Jul 10, 2006 9:32 AM EDT

{"commentId":198741,"authorDomain":"soccerlens"}

Ahmed Bilal

Yea, def. Great keeping by Lehmann.

{"commentId":198741,"threadId":"29492","contentId":"282798","authorDomain":"soccerlens"}

#4 - Mon Jul 10, 2006 10:17 AM EDT

{"commentId":198867,"authorDomain":"timpulice"}

Tim Pulice

Whether or not the votes were cast at halftime, it's still appalling that Zidane won; a terrible message to send, especially to younger fans/players.

{"commentId":198867,"threadId":"29492","contentId":"282798","authorDomain":"timpulice"}

1 vote

#5 - Mon Jul 10, 2006 11:38 AM EDT

{"commentId":199044,"authorDomain":"zaki"}

Zaki

the Adidas Golden Ball goes to the player who made the most valuable player and who influenced the World Cup 2006 the most.

Clearly it was Zinedine Zidane. He took a team whom everybody had doubts, whom many newspapers nationally and internationally called them a bunch of old men.

There were debates on whether or not France would beat Togo and qualify for the 2nd round.

Zidane came back, and beat Spain, Brasil, and Portugal. Nobody believed before the World Cup that France would make it to the final, except myself along with a few die-hard French supporteurs. (All of France was 50/50 about the Togo game over whether or not we'd win, but for the final, 85/15 believed we'd win the cup)

You can diss Zidane for his red card, but you cannot forget the Legend. You can't compare 1 event to over a decade of joy. Zidane is the best footballeur in the past 15 years of the sport. He deserved the award, red card or not.

I hope someday we find out what Materazzi had said, I think that Zidane will never tell us. More than likely, Materazzi said something racial about Zidane's background or his sick mother at the hospital. Zidane would have not exploded unless the comments from Materazzi were way over the line. The cameras did not show, but the two exchanged heated comments during the entire game.

If Materazzi did indeed call Zidane a terrorist, as The Guardian speculates, then Materazzi ought to be careful next time his club plays in France.

ps. If you have doubts about Zidane's award, rewatch France vs Brasil (quarterfinals). He completely dominated that game, and overshadowed everybody. It was the most beautiful game of his career.

{"commentId":199044,"threadId":"29492","contentId":"282798","authorDomain":"zaki"}

#6 - Mon Jul 10, 2006 2:02 PM EDT

{"commentId":199361,"authorDomain":"soccerlens"}

Ahmed Bilal

the argument is not against his card. the argument is that he had four good games - cannavaro had 7 good games.

the argument is that zidane's success bas built upon the success of vieira and makelele - both of whom were far more important in breaking up opposition play than zidane was. If any other opposite team had tried playing two holding players it would have been interesting to see how zidane would have fared. Incidentally, against Portugal, Zidane was not as impressive as he had been against Spain and Brazil. Why? Costinha and Maniche.

Cannavaro, on the other hand, is the reason Italy have not allowed the opposition to score from open play (Zaccardi - own goal, Zidane - penalty).

Despite Henry, Ribery and Zidane attacking so well, Cannavaro was the difference between 1 goal and 3 goals on Sunday night.

Without Zidane, it is possible that France could have beaten Portugal. Without Cannavaro, Italy couldn't have kept a clean sheet against Germany.

Zidane had some great games, but too much sentimentality won't do anyone any good....

{"commentId":199361,"threadId":"29492","contentId":"282798","authorDomain":"soccerlens"}

2 votes

#6.1 - Mon Jul 10, 2006 5:28 PM EDT

{"commentId":199053,"authorDomain":"weisheng"}

weisheng

I thought Cannavaro was the obvious choice for the Golden Ball too. His defending has been immaculate and he has led by example. There's a herd mentality of sorts amongst the officials and media in football. You always see the same players nominated for awards even though there may have been others who have put in far better performances for that particular season.

{"commentId":199053,"threadId":"29492","contentId":"282798","authorDomain":"weisheng"}

#7 - Mon Jul 10, 2006 2:07 PM EDT

{"canLink":false,"threadId":"29492","isPrivate":false}

The Zidane Mystery: What Set Him Off?	Associated Press	Mon Jul 10	34
Zidane wins Golden Ball	Guardian Unlimited	Mon Jul 10	0
Disgraced Zidane wins World Cup Golden Ball	ESPN.com	Mon Jul 10	0
Rumor: Zidane apparently called "dirty terrorist" by Materazzi	Reuters	Mon Jul 10	3
Zidane headbutt comes to video games	destructoid.com	Mon Jul 10	0

AHMED BILAL

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Zidane Wins Best Player Award, I Choke On My Breakfast and Almost Die...

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