A Tribute to the Best of All Time

When I was around the age of four or five, soccer(as us stupid Americans call it) was my favorite sport. That was until April 2002 when I watched Dixon's Terrapins win the National Championship, when I got into basketball obsessively. Now four years later, I am thirteen, and I am into soccer more than ever. My dad used to play club "football" in India, and so he has been all into the World Cup. Our whole famly has been behind France all the way, giving that they have two Muslims on their team(Zidane and Ribery). After just watching Zidane play once, I was amazed, he has magic flowing through his legs and his roulette is pure genius. I also liked France because of how diverse they are, having Whites, Blacks, and Arabs. I don't care if he headbutted Matarazzi, the idiot deserved it anyway. He must have said somethink so freaking hateful and rude, to get Zidane, one of the most humble, shy, and graceful players in the world to get that angry. I'm not excusing it, Zidane overreacted, but once we find out what actually happened, it will all become more clear. So, thank you Zinedine Zidane, for reinspiring in me the love for the only true international sport. Merci Zizou, et Bravo!

Also here is someone from SI talking about Zidane:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/dr_z/07/10/zidane/index.html

I voted for the last option. Everybody will be bashing Zidane now, mainly because his overreaction probably cost France the WC. Eventually, people will remember him for what he did over the years, with Juventus and Real, and not for his stupid headbutt!!!one1! Ahh, just thinking about it makes me

Anyway, thank you Zinedine, for giving us football soccer fans great memories

zidane is still top 10 player of all time....he could of been top 5 if he won the world cup

He always has and will be my favourite non-Persian soccer player. Ever since the 98 win over Brazil where he scored the two-headers to knock out the favourites, I was hooked on soccer.

If you know anything about soccer, then you will know what a great player Zidane was and certainly not remember him for the headbutt, you'd probably use it to remember what a douche Materazzi and the Italians are but that's another story.

Thanks for all the memories, Zidane. Also, very nicely put there Amo.

I voted No. His legacy will not be ruined just because of a headbutt. He has been a great player, even in his age and he deserved to win the Cup. I haven't been following soccer for long(Maybe two years) but I still know that Zidane was one of the best.

Amo, I too have been backing France, almost solely because of Zidane. I played soccer until I was 14, and then basketball just took over. However, I too am more into soccer now than I've ever been.

People who are saying this is going to keep Zidane out of the best of all time are idiots. Did Maradona go out on top? Hell no, but we still consider him a top 3 best player of all-time. Zidane will be considered in the top 5 of all time come WC 2010.

BTW...there are no guarantees that France would have won of Zidane wasn't thrown out. Wasn't it Trezeguet who missed one of the PKs? He came in for Henry, not Zidane....so he would have probably taken that PK regardless if Zidane was in or not.

Zidane is one of my favorite football players of all time (probably even my favorite), I don't think people will remember him for the headbutt because he's done thousands of great things.
If I have to rank him in the Top 10 it will probably be at the first place (Yeah, who cares about Pelé and Maradona?!?), because he's a player that plays football for the pleasure of playing football. And it's really hard to find a football player doing that, nowadays.

And Pele and Maradona didn't. But ofcourse. Lay off his cock Joe.

I don't know Pelé but Maradona, when he noticed how much money he could get, only played for money.

Why should a headbutt ruin his career. Maradona took drugs and people still recognise him as possibly the greatest ever.

It takes years to build up your reputation but it takes one dumb incident to wash all of it away. No one should be judged by one incident, his career should be looked from his rookie years to his retirement.

Why should a headbutt ruin his career. Maradona took drugs and people still recognise him as possibly the greatest ever.

And the god's hand...3rd option

I don't know Pelé ...

SAY WHAT???

I meant "I don't know about Pelé, but Maradona played only for the money, later in his career"
Damn, I always miss some word .
Anyways, it's not that I know Pelé that much...I just know he's one of the greatest football players of all time. I've only seen like two or three videos about him.

Joe, a players motives don't detract from how good they are.