Zidane Headbutt

It's interesting what you can find out by working in retail. Apparently I met an Italian family and a half-Frenchman, so I got to hear from both sides of the fence.

I was helping a woman with a strong Italian accent find the right sized shirt and then proceeded to check them out for her. After asking her where she was from, I lit up and exclaimed, "Ohhh, you all have won this year's World Cup!" She smiled a bit and said, "Yes it is true and that after quite some time we (well actually they) deserve to win it. It's been awhile." After that she and her very cute Italian kids and grandma left the store. I seriously could not figure out if they were speaking in French or Spanish, because Italian sounds sooo much like a combination of the two...but I digress.

Later on into the afternoon, I overheard another customer at the cash-wrap booming out in an accented voice that was eager to let out his story to anybody who would listen: "Do you follow the World Cup?"

Of course, he asked an American and he replied no (what do you expect?). Curious, I stopped and listened to him continue, "You know I'm half French and my father was at that game between France and Italy. Italy won unfortunately, but it was a good game."

This of course, as anybody would know me, got me very excited and I jumped right in and said, "Yes, I heard about Zidane and how he head-butted that Italian player."

This guy whipped around and smiled and said, "You know, my father was in the stands, and I am half-French by the way, he saw the whole thing. You see, you couldn't view it from the television camera, but from my father's angle he saw the whole thing."

"Well what happened?" I asked

"The Italian player was all over Zidane the entire game, he was very aggressive. But you know, he was also yelling out a lot of racial slurs at the same time. Have you been following the stories behind this game, with the coach from Spain and all?"

"Oh yeah, I heard about this problem, it's becoming a big issue and all," I replied.

"Well, from my father's view, he saw that during the break the Italian player had actually twisted Zidane's nipple and said something that made him angry and you know Zidane is a very cool guy, but he lost it after that moment."

"Oh really? He twisted his nipple?" I raised my eyebrow at this one.

"Oh yes, he twisted his nipple. Zidane is very admirable, very modest you know. He wouldn't say to the press why he did what he did but kept it to himself."

At this point I had to run to attend to another customer, but after coming home I saw this video and it's TRUE. Well, at least it looks like it. Hey, he said his father was there to see the whole thing...and he's half French, so it MUST be true, right? At least it is worth a chuckle.