Zidane head-butt sets US tongues wagging about football

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2006

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States, where football is still a second-tier sport, was nonetheless fascinated by the saga of French star Zinedine Zidane and his fateful head-butt in the World Cup final.

Some observers wasted no time in pointing out that Zidane's head-butt, paradoxically, raised football to a profile previously unknown in the land of basketball, baseball and footballs with pointed ends.

"His renkown is at its highest level among soccer fans even if what happened creates some doubt and uneasiness," American University health and sport promotion professor Pete Mehlert told AFP.

A San Jose Mercury News columnist wrote on Thursday: "I don't know how long it will last and I don't know if the soccer elite likes it but this is soccer's moment in...