Zidane Racism Story

YO! Welcome back to my fourth post on this blog. As always I'm excited to bring you guys this story, especially this one of any racism incident that has happened. This story always gets to me because the victim of racism was Algerian (close to Lebanese/Middle-Eastern).

This is the incident of Zinedine Zidane, one of the greatest to ever play the amazing sport of soccer, in my opinion. So this is back in the year of 2006, in the World Cup Final, France vs Italy Zidane's final game ever. The game had been tied at 1-1. During the first half of extra time the Italian player Marco Materazzi went up to Zidane and said something that enraged Zidane enough that he headbutted Marco in the chest and was sent off for the rest pf the game. Italy went on to win in shoot outs.

Zidane had never specified what Marco had said but only mentioned "Terrorist". Being called that alone would provoke anyone even the calmest man. A few days after calming down, Zidane apologized for his actions. He had gotten over the insult but I think was especially upset of the way he ended his career.

Zinedine's agent talked to the press and made it specific that his client is the calmest and least likely person to do that so whatever Marco said must have been bad.

I am on Zidane's side for sure but can also see why the officials penalized him so harshly. There was no reason for Marco to take things to that extremity. If he was trying to get under his skin he could've used other types of trash talk which is fair since it's part of the game but not that far. On the other hand, Zidane might have reacted too violently. He could've just turned the other cheek which is really hard but would've shown that he's the bigger man.

Zidane News Story