Paris
France welcomed its losing World Cup team home with a massive rally this week, giving special cheers for team captain Zinedine Zidane, whose expulsion from the final may have cost France the victory. Zidane, a veteran player and the hero of France’s 1998 World Cup victory, lost his temper during overtime play and brutally head-butted an Italy player who had insulted him. French commentators almost uniformly denounced the appalling display. But fans and teammates were more sympathetic, noting that Zidane, an ethnic Algerian, grew up in a Marseilles slum where brawling was common and insults could not be overlooked. “You can take the man out of the projects, but you can’t take the projects out of the man,” said striker Thierry Henry. President Jacques Chirac said France would always love Zidane as a “virtuoso” and “a man of heart and conviction.”
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