Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) did not count the votes of captains and coaches of national teams right, APA reports quoting to Spain press.
FIFA have admitted that they miscounted the votes for this year’s World Player title and took the prize away from Italy’s Fabio Cannavaro and gave it to France’s Zinedine Zidane.
It should be noted that, according to the results of survey announced on December 19, Fabio Cannavaro won World Player title getting 498 votes. Zidan was the second with 454 votes, Ronaldinio the third with 380 votes. Zidane will receive his award on December 30 at a mini-ceremony in Monaco. Cannavaro will now have to settle for the second place.
It should be noted that Spain newspaper Marca declared that this information is a joke.
I realized that most English-speaking viewers probably haven’t seen this interview, so I tracked down a subtitled version from YouTube. This is the Canal+ interview video, in French but with English subtitles. It’s still pretty interesting if the head butt in the World Cup Final captured your attention.
There are many drugs on the market but how many of us actually know how to find out what are these drugs and their effects without buying expensive medical drug references or without referring to a medical practitioner? How many of us have ever heard of the drug name Cipro anyway?
Perhaps we shall never know what he was thinking on that day. A salute to Zizou, nonetheless.
Midway through extra time in soccer’s World Cup final, Zinedine Zidane rose majestically to head the goal designed to claim the trophy for France.
Instead the consistently excellent Italian keeper, Gianluigi Buffon, arched high to tip the ball one-handed over the bar and preserve the 1-1 scoreline.
What subsequently passed through Zidane’s mind in the dying moments of a career that had taken him from the backstreets of Marseille to the glamorous European club giants, Juventus and Real Madrid?
Confounding the pessimists, he had gradually recaptured the form which propelled France to their 1998 World Cup triumph. But after Buffon’s save he must have known his final chance of glory on the game’s ultimate stage had all but vanished.
Certainly something snapped 10 minutes before the final whistle at the Berlin Olympic stadium. After a brief altercation the French captain suddenly head-butted Marco Materazzi in the chest and was sent from the field. His demoralised team then succumbed 5-3 in the penalty shootout.
It is sad that nobody seemed to recall Zidane’s fine career run in the World Cup before the final with Italy. He really was an outstanding player, no doubt about that.
Zidane’s performances against Spain and Brazil had thrust France into the World Cup final; his chipped penalty in the first half against Italy briefly raised hopes of the perfect finish. Then Murphy’s Law kicked in. That Zidane, with all his experience, would succumb to sledging seems inconceivable, yet it is supposedly what happened. Some believe, going by Zidane’s chequered on-field history, he couldn’t have reacted in any other way. Exactly what prompted his sullen charge, head-first into Italian defender Marco Materazzi’s chest in the dying minutes of extra-time, remains unclear. Nobody seems to know what was said. But a moment of silliness robbed the French talisman of his finest moment, his team possibly of the Cup.
How can we ever forget the World Cup 2006 and the Zidane drama that comes with it?
2006 was all about the World Cup, but looking beyond, the year saw the passing away of the legendary Hungarian forward Ferenc Puskas, writes Nandita Sridhar.
The fact that a bald head striking a blue jersey covered chest is the longstanding image of the 2006 FIFA World Cup says something about the latter stages of the tournament, where, for most parts, the ball that flew off the boot defied nothing but hopes.
The `showpiece’ event, a tag under severe threat after 2002, had the drama, no doubt, but did it have the quality that a World Cup stage demands? It doesn’t take nitpicking to conclude that it didn’t.
To put it simply, the goals dried up after the Group stages, with play getting more defensive, and fewer risks taken. The artificial and momentary excitement of penalty shootouts cannot make up for the thrill of watching a goal.
Thank God for Zinedine Zidane, the towering, bald figure the world was privileged to watch till he lost his head. Moments like his brilliant pass to Thierry Henry against Brazil and the audacious penalty he took in the final, showing nerves of steel made the event worth watching.
Alas, remembering Zidane henceforth will always be like admiring a cracked work of art. Discussing his sublime football will always summon (not willingly) thoughts of his final act on the football field. His ability to withstand pressure will always be weighed against his inability to withstand provocation.
The year 2006 will always be fondly remembered as the year when a Frenchman head-butted an Italian during a World Cup final. It even outshines Australia’s performance. Hehe.
THE soccer World Cup and Australia’s success in reaching the final 16 were the biggest sports stories of 2006, according to a poll of the nation’s sports editors.
Test captain Ricky Ponting was voted Australian sportsman of the year over US Open golf champion Geoff Ogilvy while basketballer Lauren Jackson was voted sportswoman of the year ahead of breaststroke champion Leisel Jones.
But it was the World Cup, particularly Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt which helped Italy to win the tournament and the Socceroos’ come-from-behind 3-1 win over Japan, that sports editors voted the best international and Australian sports stories of the year.
Zidane’s headbutt was described as “a crazy moment from one of the biggest stars in world sport in the biggest match of the year” by one sports editor.
Another said it was “one of the great brain snaps of all time, generated enormous interest and sparked a media race to find out exactly what set him off”.