effervescent refractions

The greatest act of maturity I’ve seen in the past 24 hours was awarding Zizou the Golden Ball despite his more than inopportune reaction in last night’s game. I see his departure as unfortunate more than any of the many derogatory adjectives used to qualify the event of this final. It very simply saddens me to see him go out in what could have been a moment of glory even in such palpable defeat. Zidane fused with the legends of football yesterday, Panenka’s penalty, Beckenbauer’s broken clavicle, Pelé’s three goals in two World Cup finals (not forgetting the equal achievement of Breitner and Vavá), he equaled the greats and as Didier Deschamps put it so well, “Zidane can imitate anyone, but no one can imitate Zidane”. Soon an explanation will come out about what happened 8 minutes before the concluding whistle, but in the long run it doesn’t matter, if Maradona’s legend can survive, his is more than set in stone.s