What Did I Tell You?

In a solid show of support for headbutting (aka. "awesomeness"), the international press voted Zinedine Zidane the winner of World Cup's highest individual honor: the Golden Ball.

I don't think I need to reiterate the reasons behind his win. I'll just say this: only a small percentage of the vote was based on his outstanding play and his role as leader of the best team in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The remainder of the votes were cast strictly in awe.

As a quick followup, there has been a lot of speculation about exactly what Marco Materazzi said to Zizou that made him flip out. Some have said he insulted Zidane's mother. I mean, really insulted.

Of course Materazzi denies those claims. He admits that he taunted the French captain, but conveniently forgot just what he said.

Personally, my assessment went from "interested due to awesome headbutt" to "genuinely a fan of Zinedine Zidane."

Doug has reminded me more than once about how his fandom for a particular sports figure (i.e. Dominic Hasek, Miroslav Satan, etc.) evolved out of some happenstance event. Well, I see how that works now.

Read the articles and decide for yourself.