[AGL] about Zinedine Zidane's head-butt

[Michael Eisenstadt]

Here's some personal background on Zinedine Zidane's notorious head butt of
the Italian player in the final of the World Cup. Zinedine chose to hit him
in the sternum which knocked him down like a bowling pin.The video footage
of the knockdown almost makes it look like a conjuring trick. Zinedine is of
Algerian background and the Italian player was dissing him.

50 years ago and counting when I lived the "student's" life in Paris, a
friend of mine, Khalil Azouz nicknamed Ghazi, head butted me on the
forehead. I was surprised by the strength of the impact and the
unexpectedness and immediacy of its delivery. It almost gave me a headache.
Ghazi explained that he did it so I would know how dangerous the head butt
is and be forewarned, as the top of the forehead used in the head butt is so
hard that striking soft tissue with it can wreak fearful damage.I was at
that time consorting with Ghazi's friends, other arabs like him from Morocco
and other countries of the Mahgreb. They even knew I was a jew.  Ghazi
claimed he was being solicitous of my welfare in their company. Ghazi
himself was consorting with western women and was working at the US Air
Force base at Orly. Ghazi eventually married a French jewish woman mainly he
said in view of permitting him to get to the US. He phoned me at home in
Brooklyn after accomplishing this complicated deed and we met once or twice
as I remember. I do wish I could see him again in this life and hear of his
adventures.

Zidane being the world class athlete that he is, could, if he had chosen to,
knocked every tooth out of the Italian player's mouth with a head butt.
Instead of a red card penalty and getting kicked out of the game, he would
have been arrested.

and a passage from Time magazine:

What will happen when Zidane answers the burning question of what was said?
Probably nothing. Polls show 61% of French people already forgive Zidane for
the head-butt, while 52% say they understand his violent response. Those
numbers will probably increase a bit once the exact words Materazzi spoke
are known. Meanwhile, even after seeing Zidane's astonishing implosion and
France's ensuing defeat, sports writers voted him the Cup's best player and
awarded the Frenchman the tournament's Golden Ball - a superlative their
peers denied Zidane in 2001 voting for best pro player in Europe, after he
broke a bone in a rival's face with an earlier head-butt.

Mike Eisenstadt