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Now that grand finale has been
played, and the golden trophy won, a few random thoughts: Zidane, the French
captain was smiling while untangling himself from the Italian defender
Materazzi. Then something snapped. Madness descended out of the bleu, and
the mystical Zizou, arguably the greatest player of his generation playing
his last game for France, decided to head butt the lanky rival in the chest.
What's sadder, he'd been playing like a maestro before that. Of course we do
not know what Materazzi said that so provoked Zidane. But the fact is he
lost it!
Does that go to prove what
the ancient Greeks said: those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first
make angry (the same things as 'mad')? But why blame the gods? As Benjamin
Disraeli said, "A person's fate is their own temper." Wags might add
football stars are "like that only"-- notoriously temperamental, 90% temper
and 10% mental !
If only the great Zizou had
opted to respond to the provocation in the manner the Brazilians play --
with joy, playing to win. Instead, that the 'god-like' player showed that he
was all too human, reacting in the manner that the Argentinean angels are
often accused of doing--playing not to lose. (Remember Diego
Maradona's 'hand-of-God' goal against England in the 1986 World Cup
quarterfinal in Mexico? Brazilians reportedly have a word for such dodgy
behaviour, which includes faking injuries and running from taking
responsibility for their aggressive tactics. They call it 'catimba'.)
But we should be wary of
national stereotypes. Argentineans aren't the only ones who play hardball.
Aficionados often complain about of a pernicious sort of Murphy's Law that
operates in this high stakes game: if they think they can get away with it,
most players will cheat; it's like saying if things can go wrong, they will.
So the head-butter paid for
making his temper fly, like a butterfly. In hindsight it's easy to say that
if the 'magical' footballer had only paid heed to his own coach's mantra --
play the game as if it's your last -- the outcome may have been radically
different. What makes it more ironic is that Zidane had supposedly recovered
his age-defying resurgence recently because he was playing as if he had
nothing to prove in the 'beautiful' game. That did not prevent a rival
team's coach from calling Zidane a 'monster'. A huge compliment, albeit
offside. Can't win all. |
