SOCCER
Chirac hails Zidane
Posted Tue, 11 Jul 2006

President Jacques Chirac hailed inspirational captain Zinedine Zidane despite his dismissal for headbutting in the World Cup final loss to Italy, as the French team returned home on Monday in no mood to party.

The scheduled parade down the famed Champs Elysees boulevard in Paris was cancelled on the wishes of French coach Raymond Domenech after seeing the team lose on penalties in Sunday's final in Berlin.

Chirac, who attended the match where Zidane was red-carded for headbutting the chest of Italian defender Marco Materazzi, made only a veiled allusion to the incident.

"What I want to say to you at the most intense, perhaps the hardest moment of your career, is the admiration and affection of an entire nation, and also its respects," he said, as Elysee Palace staff applauded.

He added: "You are a virtuoso, a genius of world football, you are also a man of heart, of commitment and of conviction. That is why France admires you and loves you."

France lost 5-3 on penalties after the game had finished 1-1 at the end of extra time, Zidane having opened the scoring with a first-half penalty.

His red card however in the second period of extra time deprived France of their most important player and first-choice penalty taker.

It stunned commentators, the Figaro daily writing in a merciless editorial that Zidane's "final and odious headbutt" had tarnished the final match of a "magical" player.

"We were left speechless by such stupidity," the paper wrote — although it also paid tribute to Zidane "for all the kicks of pure beauty he has given us over more than 100 matches with Les Bleus".

"The hardest thing is not to try to understand why Les Bleus lost a World Cup final match that was within reach," the sports daily L'Equipe wrote, but "to explain to tens of millions of children around the world how you allowed yourself to headbutt Marco Materazzi".

The French team touched down earlier at Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris where around 100 supporters cheered their return.

An hour later their coach parked outside the Elysee Palace in central Paris where several hundred supporters clapped and shouted "merci les Bleus" as the players were greeted one by one by Chirac and his wife Bernadette on the steps of the residence.

Goalkeeper Fabien Barthez was the only absentee for family reasons.

Later they waved to several thousand cheering supporters from a balcony of the Crillon Hotel, one of the capital's classiest establishments, on Place de la Concorde, but their mood appeared flat and perfunctory.

The loudest cheers were for Zidane, Franck Ribery and Thierry Henry as well as Domenech, while David Trezeguet — the only player to miss his spot-kick — was also warmly applauded.

Chirac said the team had shown the nation how to act for the common good.

"Over and above your exploits, you showed that France is strong when it is united in its diversity and when it is confident in itself," he said.

Domenech said Materazzi had provoked Zidane, a point backed by the retiring player's agent Alain Migliaccio.

"He told me Materazzi said something very serious to him, but he wouldn't tell me what," Migliaccio told BBC radio.

"He is a man who normally lets things wash over him, but on Sunday night something exploded inside him. He was very disappointed and sad. He didn't want it to end this way."

The Brazilian television station Globo, citing lip-readers, said Materazzi may have twice called Zidane's sister a prostitute before uttering a "coarse" word at the player himself.

France's biggest commercial broadcaster TF1 reported a peak of 25 million viewers for its match coverage.

It was the second-most watched programme on French television — behind the semifinal last midweek when France beat Portugal — since the current way of measuring audiences began in 1989.

AFP