Nearly four years ago, on July 9th 2006 in Berlin, at precisely the 110th minute, Zinedine Zidane‘s last act following a longstanding heroic carrière internationale (international career) was to deliver a completely unexpected coup de boule (a headbutt) to the upper chest of the Italian player Marco Materazzi.

– Where were you watching the game, and what was your initial reaction back then?
* Le Football comme de l’art:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzzTkds5YqE

Even before that the reasons of Zidane’s reaction were to be announced to le grand public (the wide public), a French sondage (poll) showed that the majority of French people had already forgiven le capitaine des Bleus for his geste; a fact which alone reflects the extent of affection and admiration he enjoyed -and still enjoys- in France.

Naturalement (naturally), a tremendous and passionate international uproar emerged in the aftermath of the fâcheux incident, ranging from the psychologically probing analysis and the intervention of professional lip-readers who went to extraordinary lengths in order to decipher the actual words exchanged between the two embattled players, to the second degré (tongue-in-cheek) reactions on the Internet, such as the overwhelming plethora of Youtube videos parodying the “incident”– in their own manière, of course.

Here some of them, which you may or may not have seen during les quatre dernières années (the four last years):

* Zidane vs. Castro (or his modest contribution towards the “fall of communism”):

Here are some of the lyrics:

Le rital il a eu mal
Zidane il l’a frappé
L’italien ne va pas bien
Zidane il l’a tapé
L’arbitre l’a vu a la télé
Zidane il l’a frappé
Mais la coupe on l’a ratée
On a quand même bien rigolé

Trézégué n’a pas joué
Quand il a joué il a raté
Il a tout fait capoter
La coupe on l’a ratée
Barthez n’a rien arrêté
C’est pourtant pas compliqué
Les sponsors sont tous fachés
Mais Chirac a bien parlé

Attention c’est la danse du coup de boule, coup de boule !
Coup de boule à droite
Coup de boule à gauche
Coup de boule avant
Coup de boule arrière
Et maintenant Pénalty
Attention il va tirer: 1, 2, 3, c’est raté ! !

On a quand même bien rigolé
Zidane et Trézégué
La coupe on l’a ratée
Zidane et Trézégué