A couple of hours from now, 22 handsome men of various shapes and hues will peel off their sweat-drenched jerseys and exchange them, amid hugs and kisses and mussing of hair, before a crowd of tens of thousands and a television audience of billions. And just like that, the World Cup will be over.
As the sporting winner emerges from the final pairing of France and Italy, so shall the competitionÂ’s winning narrative, the storyline of storylines that best succeeds in taking events on the field and giving them interpretive power to tell us something about the world we live in.
It is interesting that we are having discussions right now at the Mutiny about nationalism, jingoism, patriotism, anti-nationalism, and matters of that sort, at the same time that the worldÂ’s quadriennial celebration of national identities wraps up. The World Cup is a curious beast, it is a time when national loyalties are expressed, loudly and even virulently, yet in a choreographed manner and by universally recognized rules of engagement and fair play, for a limited duration and all at the same time.
It’s as much a celebration of the porousness of national barriers as it is of their continued relevance. It’s an event that inherently applauds globalization – the demographic flows, the internationalization of the business of sports, the diffusion of popular culture, the technological advances that permit billions of people to watch the same high-quality image feeds, the ease of travel that permits delegations of supporters to travel from the far corners of the planet. And it’s also an opportunity to wrap oneself in one’s flag – or that of another country to which one feels loyalty, or kinship, or just a whimsical fancy.
The resurgence of the France team, which no one (including myself, a longtime France supporter who grew up in Paris) had given any shot of getting past the quarter-finals, has pushed back into the limelight the narratives of nationhood and cultural and demographic integration. By far the most “multicultural” team in the field this year – I mean that at the primitive, united-colors-of-Benetton level – Les Bleus offer a fantasy portrait of diversity in action, thrilling sporting action at that.
But since the team’s famous triumph in 1998, much of the luster has been taken off the easy “black-blanc-beur” sentiment. Culpable squabbling within the centre-left in the 2002 election resulted in the overtly racist right-wing politician Jean-Marie Le Pen qualifying for the second round of the presidential election, forcing a national rallying around the mediocre and fatigued Jacques Chirac.
Last year, severe riots and disturbances in the squalid working-class suburbs of Paris and other cities reminded France and the world that the daily lives of people of color in France are fraught with obstacles and discrimination; not that the complacent political class and intellectual elite seem much interested in doing anything about it.
With impeccable timing, Le Pen inveighed a couple of weeks ago that France’s poor showing in the tournament’s first round was due to the presence of too many players of color, suggesting that the coach had gone for political correctness over actual footballing skill. (Sound familiar?) Then the team started winning games against tough opponents in fine fashion, Zidane-mania began its second coming, and Le Pen as usual looked like the fool that he is. Best yet, it was revealed that the great white hope of French football, Franck Ribéry, a scruffy working class kid from the depressed port city Boulogne, on paper just the kind of type to support Le Pen, is… a proud convert to Islam.
Whether France wins or loses the match about to begin, the team’s run has put the question of making diversity work back under the spotlight – a healthy improvement over the spirit of 1998, which was all celebration and self-congratulation. That was before the clash of civilizations, the horrific events that we know, the emergence of the new flavors of bigotry, chauvinism and know-nothingness that feel today like the norm. Today, the problems are more sharply posed, the stakes – in Europe, America, South Asia, the world – immeasurably higher.
A football tournament wonÂ’t solve the worldÂ’s problems, far from it. But the narrative harvest of this yearÂ’s World Cup has only just begun. Four years from now, the next World Cup will be held in South Africa, which virtually guarantees good material from now til then. IÂ’ll be following intently, and so will many of you. Thanks to the futbolistic caucus within the Mutiny for adding to the World Cup experience this year — from Bong Breaker to Sahej, Flygirl to Football Fan, AfroDesiAc to Kobayashi, and all the regulars and lurkers in between.
I’ll be rooting for France. I think Italy is actually the better side, futbolisticamente hablando, but the spiritual edge is with the multi-hued crew. So long as the féticheurs have been paid their fee and the chickens buried in the proper spots, this one is for Zizou and the boys.
Much respect to all. Next stop, Johannesburg!
oh, i’m not making excuses for zidane. it was stupendously silly behavior at that stage (although quite an impressive head butt, if such ugly behavior can be called impressive). and i’m not taking anything away from italy’s victory. but i did feel that france, after a sluggish start came back, especially after the first half, as the stronger team. even in extra time, i think france had the upper edge for most of the time. but thems the breaks. overall, this was not a world cup filled with scintillating awe-inspiring football and the first world cup i’ve seen that really tested and tried my patience for a sport that usually delights.
🙂 appreciated
It doesn’t surprise me that MoorNam is on the side I opposed. Ha!
And I do think that Zidane’s red card affected France. France dominated possession in the second half. They played amazingly well, but just didn’t score. They were doing well in the 1st 15-minute OT, but in the second, after Zidane was ejected, France was barely staying in the game. I can understand; their best player and captain had just been ejected.
I think if Zidane had been in, with the French having more energy at the end than the Italians, the French were very likely to have scored in the second 15-minute OT. My two cents.
Zidane was the greatest player since Maradona, and he is one of the greatest of all time. Like Maradona, genius comes with a dark side, and we saw that tonight. Nobody will know what intimate rage caused him to have a virtual blackout and carry out that piece of violence, totally losing the plot for a second. Very sad. The sad thing is, that even if France had won the penalties, Zidane would not have been allowed to raise the trophy.
On balance, I actually think that France had the edge tonight. But as soon as I saw the reply, I wanted Italy to win. Sad end to an enjoyable month of the beautiful game. Italy are now the greatest football nation after Brazil, having won it 4 times now.
The Italian league, Serie A, is in the middle of the biggest scandal in modern European club football, and next week four of the biggest clubs are going to be relegated and investigated for match fixing. Talk about the stereotype of Italian corruption, dodgy dealings and mafia attitudes in Italian life. But they showed the beauty that lies behind their calcio, and they have a magnificent and beautiful tradition of football. Their match against Germany in the semi was a superb example of their blend of solid defence and counter attack and was their best match. Well done Italy!
Amir-
I’m pretty chill. I was using jibe in this sense: from http://www.thefreedictionary.com jibe 2 intr.v. jibed, jib·ing, jibes Informal To be in accord; agree: Your figures jibe with mine.
to show inconsistency.
Meritocracy– so the “black players” merited your praise, but still got listed only by colour.
that summation package they did at the end to U2 music – where they show the back of the red-carded zidane going into the tunnel with the cup on the side and then italy’s victory-sealing penalty was quite sad (to me at least). there’s no guarantee france would have won if zidane had stayed, but it just reinforced the lost possibilities.
Gitanjali,
Stop being so silly. I donÂ’t judge a footballer by his/her skin colour. Other people doÂ… i.e. Le Pen.
I was responding to Anna’s suggestion on #31 that Le Pen (i.e. a racist) might use Z. Zidane’s Algerian descent as material ‘proof’ of Caucasian superiority. So I responded:
None of the black players missed a penalty kick – so I’m not sure whether Le Pen is entitled to say anything!
In the United Kingdom, us limeys frequently joke about Americans needing a ‘sense of humour bypass’ because they don’t ‘get’ irony.
Until today, I always disapproved of the joke.
Materazzi appears to tweak Zidane’s nipple, Zidane takes him down. Watch.
That may have justified a head butt then. Never touch another man’s nipple unless you are invited to do so. If there was a twisting motion involved then that was Red Card worthy. Every school boy knows this.
Zizou’s tits– Off-limits!
We must, we must, we must protect our bust.
ZizouÂ’s titsÂ… off limits?
YouÂ’ve just destroyed three of my wildest fantasies. 🙁
I’ll take a french nipple with a twist.
I was waiting for an explanation of apparently bizzare behaviour from Zidane. I guess this explains it. I am waiting for Zidane to explain himself in a press conference. That can be fun.
Truer words have never been spoken Abhi.
Thanks for the YouTube clip Manish. Zidane’s reaction makes a little more sense now.
Can we please have a mourning post? France should have won and I am totally into this nipple twist theory. They had the game stolen from under them by reckless nipple twisting Italians 🙁
Long live Zuzu…..
Is it my loser Bharatiya mentality(honed to perfection by decades of watching the national cricket team lose) that I always end-up backing the loser..??
But anyways,unimpressed by Italy…sorry for France……hats/turbans off to Zuzu(headbutt sheadbutt notwithstanding)…..this was the first world cup I followed closely since the 1990 one and unlike this time,the deserving team won the finals then.
Siddhartha,
[Note: Abhi has kindly deleted your comments about me being a ‘fool’ and an ‘idiot’ – as if I have done anything outrageous to provoke such a response. On that front, however, I’d just like to say one thing: Have a bit of humility. A ‘worthy’ interlocutor is sometimes aware that he may be wrong. And, as such, is willing to learn from his mistakes and prejudices.]
Now, let me respond to your counter-punch:
Number 1: you attempt to set up “algerian, moroccan and turkish” immigrants (gee, i wonder what they have in common?) against the others. completely outrageous distortion of the facts.
‘Turkish’ was an error on my part. I meant to say ‘Libyan’. Notwithstanding this momentary lapse of concentration, however, I shall say just one thing: anyone with a scintilla of knowledge about French society will tell you that the relationship between North-African immigrants and indigenous French people is fraught with difficulty. And yes: culture/counter-culture is important [not just economics]. There are hundreds of thousands of deprived communities all across Europe – poorer than the ones in the French ghettos – who do not resort to violence and vandalism. Now, ask yourself this: why? Poverty and discrimination have undoubtedly played a role, but it needed something else for it to materialise into a full-blown riot: i.e. a criminal/extremist element. A lot of these ‘ghetto’ suburbs lack security and policing. Gangs, running the suburbs, have slowly pushed out police presence. In Seine-Saint-Denis, security personnel have fallen from 468 in 2000 to 205 in 2005. Let me put it to this way, Sid: if these thugs – err, sorry, I mean… Marxist revolutionaries – are fighting for the greater good, then why did they set a disabled woman ablaze? Yes: they burnt her alive.
Number 2: thank you for educating me about the dynamics of neo-fascist party popularity. unfortunately, you are pulling assertions out of your arse.
What ‘assertions’ are you referring to Sid? Ad homonym abuse is the tool of a militant flat-earther who can’t see beyond his own idee fixes.
Number 3: you don’t get writing. you have no imagination.
An acquaintance of mine once referred to this as ‘… the Salvador Dali approach to culture’. E.g. Ignore the facts, just so long as you’re amusing, original or ‘provocative’. I’m a bit more old-fashioned in that I actually believe in ‘truth’ and ‘falsehood’ (although they come in starts and stops; shrouded in mystery and obfuscation). Politics, according to your imaginative self, is very much like a David Lynch movie.
Amir
I agree – totally impressive head butt. Knocked the guy right down. There was nothing ugly or dark about it either. It was open, devil may care, honest and not some kind of slimy, sleazy or underhand behavior in the least. I love him all the more for not caring about his image. He probably knew his absense wouldn’t make a difference at this point so it wasn’t irresponsible of him either.
Red Card on the play. Abhi did not delete anything.
Maybe he retracted the commentsÂ…
Or did I just hallucinate?
No, I didnÂ’t!! Surely notÂ…
IÂ’ve been watching too many re-runs of Twin Peaks. Ahhhhh!!
“I agree – totally impressive head butt. Knocked the guy right down. There was nothing ugly or dark about it either. It was open, devil may care, honest and not some kind of slimy, sleazy or underhand behavior in the least. I love him all the more for not caring about his image. He probably knew his absense wouldn’t make a difference at this point so it wasn’t irresponsible of him either.”
divya, several people on the bbc have your say are actually calling zidane’s headbutt one of the best moments of the world cup! here is what one person said: “Best moment? A perfectly delivered headbutt. Timing, disguise, targetting, precision. Frnch panache. A keeper! only zz could have delivered such a blow. Poetry.”
zidane being zidane, even his bad behavior (and i agree that at least it was out in the open and not underhanded, but nevertheless, no matter what the provocation from materazzi, it doesn’ t have a place on the football field) is getting rave reviews!
You guys don’t get it at all. The match was obviously fixed. If only you followed european football, you would see the obvious.
Guess what team Trezeguet plays for, and guess which team 6 members of the Italian team belong to, and guess which team is involved in the recent match fixing controversy – JUVENTUS.
Obviously he was made an offer he couldnt refuse 😉
P.S – I detest the Italian style of football, but have a grudging admiration for them. Their league is definitely the most brutal of all. They play hard, fall hard 😉 and dont have a problem tweaking the rules; or nipples for that matter 🙂
i guess Zizou has style even when doing something like that. maybe you have to take into account he comes from a tough life, he’s not used to prancing around. i think he was frustrated through-out the match, he was denied a penalty a few times by the ref, which for a player who has a rep as not diving, had to make him mad. there are people wondering what materrazi must have said. i think Zizou got very used to not taking anything from anybody and maybe this caught up with him because the Italian team was not kissing his a%%. unless something really horrible was said by Materazzi
P.P.S – I couldnt help noticing that the Italians dint go over and shake hands or exchange jerseys with the French(Not even the coach!!). Maybe I missed it, but I wouldnt be surprised at all if they dint. And if indeed they did not, it is highly unusual and very unsportsmanly and totally against the spirit of what the world cup means to people across the globe.
some might find this composite of the french and italian national teams of interest.
no nipple twist, just like there was no second gunman….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoADvPC7IvI
Anyone here thinks Italy’s second goal was not ‘offside’ and is infact a valid goal..???
Ponniyin Selvan, I saw a replay, and it sure looked offside to me. Then again, since the ridiculous Australia-Italy game, Italy is the only team in the WorldCup that I wanted to lose, which may (thanks to the glory that is beer) have clouded my judgement.
Excellent article Siddhartha. On point, as always.
It has been a strange, slightly surreal day of futbolism, but in the end, it is what it is. I have just returned from the streets of Little Italy in lower Manhattan, which are thick with revellers and hangers on, the honks of horns, the tireless flapping of the il tricolore.
Zinedine Zidane: the greatest footballer I’ve ever seen. He’s in a class only with Maradona and Pele. In my opinion, he’s at the very head of that class. As for the headbutt, even the ugly thing is done with heartbreaking beauty. That is the legacy of the great Zidane: he takes the breath away, always.
Congratulations to the Azzurri, the most complete team of the 2006 World Cup.
Great article, Siddharta. Devastated that France lost.
Congratulations Italy. Oh, to be on Lygon St
Brooklyn Brown: “Then again, since the ridiculous Australia-Italy game, Italy is the only team in the WorldCup that I wanted to lose”
Tell me about it. Have no love for the Italians this tournament but they did well in the second stage.
Excuse me while I go drown my bitterness in something…
Thanks BrooklynBrown,
I think FIFA folks should use ‘technology’ (TV replays) to take care of the ‘oscar’ winning acting performances from the players.. Even in cricket we have ‘third’ umpires to take care of ‘controversial’ decisions..
Personally, i don’t like both the teams, way too defensive.. I’d have liked Argentina / Germany.
As valid as Thierry Henry’s goal on Portugal. He definitely looked offside then. He is a famous offside offender. Luca looked offside few seconds before the ball was kicked to him. When he received it, he was onside.
WHY Zizou…….
Anything he says now will sound like a phony excuse!
Double article! Well, you get my drift…
Can we call this nipple gate ?
dude, that totally was a nipple-twist and no man should have to ever live that down. not even the french.
Zizou’s head butt was awesome. Divya said it well – honest. Sometimes, standing up for your dignity (not only did he tweak his nipple, but it bet he said something terribly racist) is far more important. It’s easy to call him a fool, but sometimes enough is enough. And, trust me, the other time he got a red card was against a Saudi player (I am sure you can guess what racial slurs that player might have used). Sometime, you have to face the consequences when you do the right thing – it’s a pity; those who profess their love for Zizou, change their heart on trivial things, when they should respect him even more for being a better man. But futbol is better game merely because he played it.
By any stretch, his headbutt did not cost France the cup. Everbody knows France was a better team, and Materazzi is no gentleman. I bet that’s the last time he will be tweaking a nipple, though.
Zidane’s still my man.
What a Napoleonic tragedy, a modern-day Gotterdammerung!
Yep, Divya and Satish, I hear ya. Sometimes a man’s gotta be a man and stand up for himself. But I do wish he’d done the head-butting after 15 minutes and with the cup in his hands.
See y’all in ZA.
A couple of thoughts that crossed my mind at that moment:
Ancient Greek proverb: “Whom the gods wish to destroy they first drive mad”
or its Indian equivalent (from the Mahabharat)
vinaash kaale viprit buddhi (At the time of destruction, the mind cannot think straight)
That was just such a philosophically significant moment for me. I’ve followed Zidane over the years, and loved his Zen-master appeal, elevating him to a legend, a god. As millions have probably done. It’s the punishment of Icarus, whom the gods sent crashing for flying too high.
The gods had to show us that he was just a MAN after all.
amir,
i removed my original characterisations of you because they weren’t helpful. however, i do not consider you to be arguing in good faith. you have advanced tendentious arguments which others on this very thread have had the patience to refute. you have made absurd claims about the alignments of various ethnic groups in french society today, and undermined your credibility in doing so by splitting hairs about who is “coloured” or not that would make a 1960s-era south african government minister proud. you have placed the stigma of trouble in french society on people of north african origin whom you have gone on to equate with thugs; your prescription of what to do about social tensions in france is very much identical to that of nicolas sarkozy. you are welcome to your opinions, but you do yourself no credit by adpting the self-righteous pose of “anyone with any scintilla of knowledge about france… bla bla bla.” your scintilla does not shine bright, my friend. i would venture that i know a great deal more about french politics, society, history, and culture than you do.
as for politics being surreal, well, yes, i rather do think it is. if you are comfortable in your firm truths about what is right and what is wrong, what is fact and what is fiction, then good for you. to me you seem like just another security-obsessed crypto-racist who feels threatened by anyone with a connection to the arab world. that’s the impression i get from your writings… hey, it’s only me.
so…. the question is what in tarnation did Materazzi say?
Did he say something about Zizou’s wife? Or a racial slur? Both? Only a vicious comment about family or ethnicity can bring about such a reaction.
Has anyone heard about this guy? Apparently, he’s a German pop star of Indian origin, and performed at Berlin to welcome the German team after their third place victory.
popular media characterization of “strong” men favors upper body development – influences gym rats to spend time on curls when the time could be more productively spent building up trunk and/or legs – glad to see zidane’s arms in the photo above – realistic and dispels myths on what is strength
Siddhartha, great World Cup posts. They made even the unsportiest among us feel part of the action.
What a great match!
And I fully second the empathy for Zidane, who hasn’t been there? The way that guy was gripping him and muttering things in his ear…grrr… I sincerely hope Mistress Karma, the only brown presence remaining at the World Cup, kicks his sorry ass all the way to Timbuktu and back.
I was goin for Italia but Zidane, mate, there just are no words… Last match ever, all the glory, all the…sigh. Hopefully he’s got a few million francs to soothe the pain.
At least the poor guy who’s kick bounced off the edge of the goalpost is having the spotlight taken off him. Would have been awesome if France won too, since their true Benetton-brotherhood puts Le Wanker Pen to shame.
Can’t wait to see how the Saffas host it 🙂 Since some of my best friends are Italian, I am now off to celebrate! Forza Italia!!!
*whose not who’s.
And I hope there’s a Nipple Tweakers Anonymous Group in Timbuktu for that bad man! Grrr
“P.P.S – I couldnt help noticing that the Italians dint go over and shake hands or exchange jerseys with the French(Not even the coach!!). Maybe I missed it, but I wouldnt be surprised at all if they dint. And if indeed they did not, it is highly unusual and very unsportsmanly and totally against the spirit of what the world cup means to people across the globe.”
I was wondering about it too but then realised that in all the World Cup finals, at the time of the presentation ceremony the winning team is always wearing its own colors. Perhaps it is a football tradition that after the final of a tournament, players do not exchange jerseys since they want to be seen representing their country etc. I am jogging my memory and it seems that this is the case in Europeans club championships too (UEFA cup etc…).
And what a sad end to a glorious Zizou career. I shed a tear for the guy, but knowing Materazi he must have said something really inflammatory. After all, this is a guy who once was suspended to 2 months after punching an opponent in an Italian league game.
Zinedine Zidane was given the (intriguingly named) “Golden Ball Award” as the best player of the entire tournament.
I believe he’s worth it. You’ll never see two better-placed headers than the last two he gifted us with, and his individual performance against Brazil was, without a doubt, as fine a performance as I’ve ever seen a man give on the football pitch.
Hail Zizou!
Rediff reports of rumors of a racial slur involved in this incident.
I am totally getting a zidane jersey tommorow and wear it around astoria.
Sorry folks. Zidane’s headbutting was not cool. Yeah, as the Times article points out, he’d been taunted by the Italy team throughout the game. Personally, I think the Italian team has been nothing more than a bunch of thugs with great defenders in a few games during the tourney. That being said, I expect Zidane to act like a professional, regardless of how childish his opponents are.
To end his career and his captaincy, and to leave his team one man down during the last 10 minutes of an overtime WorldCup game was just stupid on Zidane’s part and should not be lauded.
Yeah yeah yeah, Zidane should have known better, but so what? He is a footballing genius and he self-destructed spectacularly and his genius will live on. Watching him walk past the trophy was an iconic image. Underneath all the surface and rules and laws human flaws were revealed. To the French he is still a hero, to me too. Allez Zizou!