The Head Butt Furor: A Window on Europes Identity Crisis
The Head Butt Furor: A Window on Europes Identity Crisis
The reason the furor over French soccer star Zinedine Zidanes 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 its about much more than trash talking. Even if Zidane avoided confirming or denying the inital 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 Frances 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. Thats 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 Frances urban ghettos whence he came, and where he continues to place his primary allegiance.
Simply being Zinedine Zidane, in fact, requires navigating a political minefield. He is at once at war with the leaders of the French far right like Jean-Marie Le Pen who deny his Frenchness; with Algerians who question his Algerianness, and perhaps also with partisans of a view of Arab-Islamic identity to whom the fact that he is both a Berber (Algerias non-Arab minority) and a self-proclaimed non-practicing Muslim may be anathema.
More : time.com