Disgraced Zidane wins World Cup Golden Ball

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hj2k_x

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Disgraced Zidane wins World Cup Golden Ball

BERLIN, July 10 (Reuters) - France captain Zinedine Zidane won the FIFA Golden Ball award as the outstanding player of the World Cup despite being sent off in their final penalties shootout defeat by Italy on Sunday.

The prize was decided by media votes, cast before Zidane was shown the red card. Zidane received 2,012, Italian captain Fabio Cannavaro finished second (1,977) and his team mate Andrea Pirlo was third (715).

Brazil and Spain shared the fair play award.

Zidane's mark on the 18th World Cup finals will never be forgotten - for good and bad reasons.

His successful seventh minute penalty for France against Italy meant he became the fourth player to score three goals in the history of the showpiece final.

But his sending off in the 111th minute meant he also became only the fourth player to be sent off in a World Cup final.

Zidane's early spot kick added to the two headed goals the French playmaker scored in the 3-0 win over Brazil in the 1998 final on home soil in Paris.

Zidane also scored in France's second-round 3-1 victory over Spain and he netted from the penalty spot in their 1-0 semi-final victory over Portugal.

To cap a vintage World Cup - until the final itself - Zidane, 34, set up Thierry Henry's winner in the 1-0 victory over champions Brazil in the quarter-finals.

The final was Zidane's last competitive match.

Other Fifa awards from the World Cup finals:

Golden Shoe (top scorer): Miroslav Klose (Germany)

Most Entertaining Team: Portugal

Best Goalkeeper: Gianluigi Buffon (Italy)

Best Young Player: Lukas Podolski (Germany)
 
That was a daft decision but I guess its to be expected...
 
Decision was made before his red card, so let's be honest he was pretty good throughout the tournament.
 
hj2k_x said:
Most Entertaining Team: Portugal

:confused:
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well of course...they score goals, they dive, they cry, they like drama queens. what more can u expect from a bunch of men like that?
 
One red card, head butt, round house kick etc, doesn't make you a bad player.
 
France loves you, Zizou, football fans tell former captain

French football captain, and several thousand French fans gathered in central Paris to welcome home the weary World Cup finalists.

A sheepish-looking Zidane bowed before the flag-waving crowds as players stepped onto the balcony of a luxury hotel to greet the diehard supporters.

"Zizou for president," fans chanted, referring to Zidane's nickname, suggesting they had forgiven him.

Striker David Trezeguet, whose penalty shootout miss cost France the chance to win their second World Cup, wept uncontrollably and had to be comforted by his team-mates.


"Dear Zinedine Zidane, what I want to express to you ... is the admiration and the affection of the whole nation - it's respect, too," Chirac said. "You are a virtuoso, a genius of world football.

You are also a man of the heart, of commitment, of conviction, and that's why France admires and loves you."

France striker Thierry Henry said: "All I want to say to you, Zizou, and I think France should say it and the world of football ... is 'Thank you', and 'Thank you'. That's it."
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Like Henry said I think this applies to real football fans Worldwide.
 
Highflyer_GP said:
Decision was made before his red card, so let's be honest he was pretty good throughout the tournament.
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Not really, he was pretty crap the first game and not much better in the last group game.

Cannavaro was the best player of the tournament.
 
icyrus said:
Cannavaro was the best player of the tournament.
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Actually that's objective, Italy played kinda crap before meeting Germany. Also the award for best goalkeeper I honestly think should have gone to Portugals keeper Ricardo, I thought he was brilliant. The reason Buffon got it was probably because of all the clean sheets, which doesn't necessarily only indicate the keepers ability but also the quality of the defense.
 
Highflyer_GP said:
Actually that's objective, Italy played kinda crap before meeting Germany. Also the award for best goalkeeper I honestly think should have gone to Portugals keeper Ricardo, I thought he was brilliant. The reason Buffon got it was probably because of all the clean sheets, which doesn't necessarily only indicate the keepers ability but also the quality of the defense.
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Although Italy didn't play that well before or after the Germany game Cannavaro stood out through the tournament. His displays were consistantly good. But you are right, it is objective.

As for Ricardo - see Germany's first goal in the 3rd place match. ;)
 
But it remains unclear exactly what was said and the BBC has broadcast two different versions.

BBC Radio Five Live asked for help from a deaf lip reader, Jessica Rees, who read the words phonetically to an Italian translator.

She deciphered the insult as being "you're the son of a terrorist whore" - a translation also carried by many national newspapers in Britain on Tuesday.

The BBC's Ten O'Clock News also called in experts to study the television footage of the incident and determined the following:

Materazzi's first word to Zidane was "no" before he then told him to "calm down".

He then accused him of being a "liar" and wished "an ugly death to you and your family" on the day the Frenchman's mother had been taken to hospital ill. This was followed by "Go f*** yourself".
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2006/5169342.stm
 
There have been loads of these lipreaders opinions, each one I've seen is quite different.

I hope the players make a statement about this to end all this speculation.
 
mooK said:
There have been loads of these lipreaders opinions, each one I've seen is quite different.

I hope the players make a statement about this to end all this speculation.
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Except that Materazzi sounds like a liar so far (doesn't know what a terrorist is).
 
I don't think he meant that he didn't know what the word meant, I think that was just a poor translation of Italian or something. 'Cos afterwards he said that the only terrorist he knows is his 10 month old baby or whatever.
 
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