Zidane not ready to talk yet

World Cup Final: Zinedine Zidane's agent says that he expects his 34-year-old client to reveal next week exactly what it was that Marco Materazzi said on Sunday night to provoke the head butt for which the French skipper was sensationally dismissed in the 110th minute of the World Cup final.

Alain Migliaccio told journalists after speaking with Zidane yesterday morning that the player had told him it was something, "very, very serious," but had declined to elaborate.

"I don't know what it was," said Migliaccio, "Zinedine wants to talk about it but it will come out next week. He is a man who normally lets things wash over him but on Sunday night he exploded inside. He was very disappointed . . . he didn't want it to end this way."

The precise nature of the provocation has been a huge topic of speculation since the referee produced the red card in the second period of extra-time of Sunday's game.

Initial speculation in some quarters focused on the possibility that he called the former Juventus and Real Madrid star "a dirty terrorist" but Materazzi yesterday denied having used a term that, in any case, always seemed a little too impersonal an insult to have prompted Zidane to lose his head so comprehensively.

Back in Paris it was reported that the question of his nationality had been raised with the Inter Milan defender allegedly questioning why, if his opponent was so proud of his Algerian roots, that he was not representing the north African nation.

But several team-mates, while insisting that they were too far away from the exchange between the two players to have heard what was said, suggested yesterday that the subject matter was likely to have been his family about which Zidane is said to be "particularly emotional".

French president Jacques Chirac, who talked with the player at length both immediately after the game in Berlin and again yesterday in the French capital, studiously avoided any criticism of the national team's departing skipper, describing him as a "genius of world football", "a virtuoso," who was "a man of heart and commitment".

Amongst the public, too, there is considerable sympathy for the man whose career, one of the greatest in the game's long history, ended in such calamitous fashion at the Olympic Stadium.

"Many of the people do feel that France may have lost the game because of what he did," says senior L'Equipe football correspondent, Jean Michel Rouet.

"But everyone accepts that the team would not have been there without him. The main thing is that he was so widely seen as a role model for young people here and there is a fear being expressed by some people that head butts will become a common feature of games played by young people here now.

"For the most part, though, there is just sadness that it has ended for him like this."

FIFA, meanwhile, has denied that telvision replays, shown on monitors in the main stand, played a key part in helping match officials to identify what had transpired and to advise the Argentinean referee on what punishment to dole out.

"This was definitely not video evidence," Fifa spokesman Andreas Herren said on BBC radio yesterday.

"I spoke with the senior person responsible for refereeing in the Fifa administration. He clearly told me the fourth official had seen the incident involving Zidane and had advised the referee through the headset.

"The fourth official saw it as it happened on the pitch," he continued, "and directly advised the referee and the referee took action. Full stop.

"It appears the referee was waiting for the situation to clear up a little bit before taking action."

The official account appears a little dubious given that the first replay of the incident, after quite a period of inaction, was followed almost immediately by the referee being summoned to the sideline after which he took action against Zidane.

It seems rather unlikely, however, that the French Federation will pursue the matter.

Materazzi's agent insisted yesterday his client is a "good boy" despite his involvement in the dismissal. Claudio Vigorelli spoke to Materazzi after the game but admitted he did not know what made Zidane react that way.

"I spoke to Materazzi briefly after the game. He was extremely happy but he did not mention the incident. I've known Marco for a long time and I don't think he is capable of provoking a player, he is a good boy.

"I will meet him on Tuesday in Milan and we will discuss what happened," said Vigorelli

Despite the furore over his dismissal, Zidane was named as the winner of FIFA's Golden Ball award for the tournament's best player yeseterday morning.

The award is decided by a ballot of journalists covering the tournament and many voted for the player ahead of Sunday night's game kicking off.

Some, however, may have persisted with their selection even after his dramatic departure with a number expressing sympathy for the star who they believed must have reacted to a terrible provocation.

In the end he clinched the award by 2,012 votes to 1,977 from Italian skipper Fabio Cannavaro with the winning team's midfield star, Andrea Pirlo, finishing in third place.

Germany's Miroslav Klose, meanwhile, won the competition's Golden Boot award as top scorer with five goals while his stike partner Lukas Podolski was named as the best young player of the last month.

Gianluigi Buffon won recognition as best goalkeeper.