By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, July 13, 2006
PARIS, July 12 -- French soccer star Zinedine Zidane said Wednesday he rammed his head into the chest of an Italian player in the final minutes of the World Cup championship game because his opponent made "very harsh" insults to his mother and sister.
Zidane said he did not regret head-butting Marco Materazzi because of the rude remarks he said the Italian hurled at him. But he expressed remorse to the "millions of children" who witnessed the incident.
"I apologize to all the children," Zidane, a French national hero, said in an interview on France's Canal Plus television channel, his first public comments since Sunday's World Cup final that was won by Italy. "Because I have kids and I know what it is. I'll always tell them not to let people step on their toes, but also to avoid this kind of thing."
Speculation over the provocation for Zidane's head butt that led to his ejection in the last minutes of his last game before retirement has consumed France for three days. British newspapers hired lip readers to try to decipher the exchange between the two men on the soccer field.
"He pulled my shirt," Zidane said, describing what led to the incident that has been broadcast repeatedly on television and been widely distributed by Web sites. "I asked him to stop pulling. I told him that if he wants, I'll exchange my shirt at the end of the match.
"He said some very harsh words, which he repeated several times," Zidane continued. "Words that were several times harsher than acts. They were words that touch the innermost parts of me. Very personal things, my mother, my sister.
"So you hear it once, you try to leave -- and that's what I did. You hear it twice, and the third time -- that's it.
"I am a man after all," Zidane said. "I would have rather received a punch in my face than to have to hear that."
He added, "I cannot say I regret my act because that would mean [Materazzi] was right to say all that."
Materazzi told an Italian newspaper Wednesday that he insulted Zidane, but provided no specific details of what he said.
"I didn't say anything to him about racism, religion or politics," Materazzi said in an interview posted on the Web site of the Gazzetta dello Sport. "I didn't talk about his mother either. I lost my mother when I was 15 and even now I still get emotional talking about her."
He added that Zidane "has always been my hero."
Zidane had no compliments for Materazzi. "I know that my act is unforgivable," Zidane said in the interview. "I'm just saying that the real culprit should be punished. And the culprit is the one who provokes."
The international soccer association, FIFA, is investigating the incident. The organization's president, Sepp Blatter, said Zidane could be stripped of the Golden Ball award he received after being chosen the best player of this year's World Cup.
While French fans were stunned at Zidane's head butt, a poll published in Le Parisien newspaper showed that 61 percent of those surveyed forgave Zidane, and 52 percent said they could understand his reaction to insults by an opposing player.
But Yves Riedrich, a sports psychologist who appeared on television after Zidane's interview, said, "The problem is that he says he doesn't regret it, which means that anyone can make their own justice on the field."
Zidane, the son of Algerian immigrants, was born and grew up in a poor suburb of the southern French port city of Marseille. After the incident, his former neighbors there were quoted in French newspapers saying that aggressive behavior was part of growing up in the tough immigrant community.
Considered one of the most accomplished soccer players of his generation, Zidane was particularly admired in the immigrant communities of France, where youth unemployment is high and youngsters have few role models.
The French soccer team is one of the few organizations in the country that reflects France's racial diversity. Seventeen of the 23 members are minorities, and the team's unexpected success in the World Cup was a source of pride for many.
Zidane said his professional soccer career is over, but that he hopes to return to Marseille to play games with his neighborhood friends.
As for his immediate plans, he said, "I'm going to rest, and then move on to something else."
Researcher Corinne Gavard contributed to this report.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.