Word: cupfuls
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...fact, the conflicting visions and divided loyalties that shape Zidane's Europe were on display in the World Cup Final long before the notorious head-butt. For France, all but four of the 14 players used in the game were children or grandchildren of Africa, from both sides of the Sahara. Italy's lineup, by contrast, had no players of immigrant origin (although Mauro Camoranesi's grandparents had left Italy for Argentina) - the Azzuri were, to put it bluntly, the whitest of the Western European teams at the World Cup. Italian soccer has long been a magnet for fascist nostalgia...
...reason the furor over French soccer star Zinedine Zidane's head-butt in the World Cup final has reached such a fever pitch - especially since his televised interview Wednesday did little to clear things up - is that it's about much more than trash talking. Even if Zidane avoided confirming or denying the initial speculation that there had been a racial dimension to the insult that provoked him, the incident is a reflection of the social divisions that persist in an increasingly multi-cultural Europe...
...Ever since France's glorious 1998 World Cup title, that country has looked to Zidane, who grew up the son of a poor Algerian immigrant, to personify the possibility of social harmony. That's a tough call for a man all too aware that his own success does nothing to change the circumstances of the disenfranchised immigrant populations of France's urban ghettos whence he came, and where he continues to place his primary allegiance...
...team that won the World Cup in 1998 was famously celebrated as a melange of "Black, Blanc, Beur" (black, white and Arab). Le Pen grumbled then, too, that the victors of 1998 were not "a real French team," but nobody cared: France had once again achieved the global greatness that had long eluded it on other fronts, and the architect of its triumph was a national treasure known as Zizou. But the continuing debate over the Zidane head-butt is a reminder that the harmony represented by the makeup of the French soccer team bears little resemblance to daily life...
...surprisingly, for many of the same ghetto residents he calls "my people," Zidane's head-butt of Marco Materazzi was a source of pride rather than shame. Kids on the streets of France's banlieue told reporters that defending his honor was more important than the World Cup. Indeed, Zidane's mother may have been speaking for more than just her family when she told a British newspaper, "Our whole family is deeply saddened that Zinedine's career should end with a red card but at least he has his honor. Some things are bigger than football...