Zidane’s Finale
Zidane played his last World Cup and most especially his last game against Italy handing a headbutt the World Deserves as his final act of greatness.
Despite losing the Finals to Italy he managed to win the Golden Ball Award given to the best player in the tournament.
Some people may argue that Cannavaro of Italy should have won the award, but he didn’t though it was a close match between the two of them.
Zidane is the best player in the tournament and strengthened the old saying (it goes something like this) — “The greatest players shine in the most important plays of the game, no matter how much they fail throughout the game when everything is on the line they shine”. That is what he did (put “game” in the context of a tournament), going berserk from the Round of 16 onwards keeping France a more dominant team than their opponents. France was a commanding presence in their game against Brazil, Portugal, and even against Italy. Italy was at the mercy of France’s attack all because of the leadership of Zidane.
His red card have thrown him out of the game and probably cost France the World Cup, but that did not make him a lesser player technically throughout the match. As I have argued in “World deserves Zidane’s headbutt” the game is smaller than any aggression a man as brave as Zidane would stand up for.
Cannavaro was good, but I would give Buffon my vote for the Golden Ball Award. Why? Something I’ll discuss in the coming days.
As for Zidane, congratulations and we will miss you…