Can we move on now?

This World Cup just runneth over....
for the record I am so over l'incident headbutt. It happened. Its over. Zidane is still awesome and i luff him.
Ok now that that’s clear...i have now regained my sense of humor and just sit and laugh my ass off over all the hoopla about who said what and allegations and counter allegations. Obviously we aren’t going to get the facts any time soon.

By the way, does anyone know how much business have lip readers and translators gotten out of this whole incident? Not that they have done a very good job of anything.

So let’s see. The lip readers. What did Materazzi say? Few of the many, many many versions I’ve read so far - "Your sister is a prostitute", "son of a terrorist whore", "terrorist son of an Algerian whore", "an ugly death for you and your family".
Ok then, the necessary background info. Algerian, immigrant, muslim and mother in the hospital the day of the final.

Fine. So maybe if the two people involved said something it might be clearer. Wishfull thinking. Well, especially for primarily English speaking people. The whole thing happened in Italian. Materazzis statements in Italian. Zidanes is in French. The translations - somewhat random.

Materazzi says - "I didn’t mention anything about religion, politics or racism. I didn’t insult his mother. I lost my mother when I was 15 years old and still get emotional when I talk about it. Naturally, I didn’t know that his mother was in hospital but I wish her all the best."

Yesterday Zizou finally spoke. Only spoke is probably the wrong term. Passed some cryptic remarks about what was said more like.
"The words he said concerned my mother and sister.I heard them once, then twice, and the third time I couldn’t control myself. I am a man and some words are harder to hear than actions."

Ok, so they don’t even agree on whether Malika Zidane was insulted - though according to The Mirror her reaction was to demand Materazzis castration. Good Lord, can the Brit tabloids please for once shut up?? Also, do the lip readers now need to change their translation to “Your mother and sister are a couple of terrorist whores”?
And unless something was lost in translation, Zizou can you please cut out the "I am a man" macho crap? (though with my limited French i gathered he actually trying to say "I am human". at least from the tf1 interview, which i thought was much better and way more interesting than the Canal + one .)

English papers first reported that Zidane specified that Materazzi didn't call him a terrorist. Then they said he didn’t specifically mention anything about being called a terrorist. Then Le Monde reported Michel Denisot asking Zidane whether what Materazzi had called Zidane "the son of a terrorist whore" to which Zidane answered simply, "Well, yes."
Confusion anyone??!!

Anyway, Zizou did seem surprisingly calm and self assured during both interviews. But why was he wearing military khaki style clothes?? He should've worn something that said look at me, father of four kids, family man, i was wronged. He needs a new PR person.
Though perhaps the military style wear went more with his 'Sorry kids, but "Je ne regrette rien"' stance. Am also curious where the tf1 interview was conducted. If Zizou reads those many books (why do i doubt this?) i now love him even more....

Anyway it of course doesn’t end here. The French have now started comparing Zizou to Camus (not for the first time though). Well, they are both French Algerian (and Zizou said he’s now going to go back to Algeria to find his roots again).
Apparently le coup de tête is now the ultimate existential act.
See - how can you not love the French?? Trust them to find some philosophical meaning in a headbutt.

Also note philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, who was quoted in L’Equipe as saying that Zidane’s act was the "suicide of a demigod.....an interior revolt against the stupid ivory tower in which he had been placed in recent months". And then in the WSJ he writes "man of providence, saviour, titan, valiant knight, a blue redeeming angel dressed in white...he's a super-Achilles...a hair's breadth from victory.." Eh? Ok, whatever. Also never mind Zizou has no hair.

And there’s more still. In Iran, Kayhan, a radical hard line newspaper ran a front-page story using two big pictures of the infamous headbutt. The headline read: "Zidane's proud farewell - The best player of the World Cup defended his Islamic identity."
Never mind that as The Guardian points out - Zidane calls himself a non-practicing Muslim and is married to a scarfless, non-Muslim dancer from Spain who has borne him four boys, none with an Islamic name. (That’s not true though. Zizou's 6 month old is named Elyaz).

And to end, after his show of support for Zidane, Jacques Chirac, who had been suffering his worst approval ratings, suddenly showed a slight rise in popularity.

All this ruckus. And no one knows what happened - still.
Zidane in the tf1 interview said he'll tell FIFA what happened and then said "If someone can read [Materazzi’s] lips, they will show that I’m telling the truth. The one who is really guilty must be punished."
Well Zizou, how about you save us the lip readers' crap and just spit it out??

My favorite version (read on blogosphere somewhere) is this:
Materazzi: Hey Zidane, want to suck my d**k?
Zidane: You want me to give you head? I'll give you head.
*Proceeds to land superlatively elegant headbutt on Materazzis strenum* LOL!

Ok then. So, can we move on now?



Update: Yes, the madness is still going on. And yes I am caught up in it all, so what you gonna do? headbutt me?
Anyway, just adding a couple of links. Here and here.
Also have to say my respect for Aimé Jacquet just increases. Seems like he is the only sane person in all the lunacy thats going on and was spot on in saying that both sides were at "the very edge of their mental and physical limits". In such stressful circumstances, Jacquet observed with sadness, Zizou is prone to react and "he simply could not control himself".
Also, Adidas launches the Merci Zidane website tomorrow. Please visit =).