France captain Zinedine Zidane, sent off for headbutting Marco Materazzi late in Sunday's World Cup final loss to Italy, won the Golden Ball award for the tournament's best player.
The results were released on Monday morning by Fifa.Zidane polled 2012 points in the vote by journalists covering the tournament, beating Italians Fabio Cannavaro (1977 points) and Andrea Pirlo (715 points) in the ballot.
A bitter French Gallas has controversially moved to defend his team-mate and alleged that Marcello Lippi's team used underhand tactics to win.
"Italians always act like this," he told AFP. "It is a shame to say that, but when they feel they are being dominated they try to provoke you.
"Yes, they are cheaters, but we can't stop that. Fifa and the referees only see the second act, they never look at why there is an incident.
"I accept when the adversary wins with honour, but that is not the case. We know Zizou, he doesn't react like that, people can't react like that, but he has been insulted.
"I think it was very grave. When you play against people like that you want to kick their ass. It is cheating, but they are Italians."
While reports in the French media suggest that Materazzi called Zidane a 'terrorist,' making reference to his Algerian roots, the Frenchman's reaction was inexcusable and left a sour taste in the mouth after what has been an outstanding career.
FIFA ought to ivestigate this matter, as it will be a matter of speculation , debate and heart pain for many people over the coming months or years.
No comments:
Post a Comment