Zidane: the nominal Muslim, the son of Algerian immigrants, the French hero, and above all the intelligent footballer who conquered Europe and the world, for me will always be the small boy who struggled to beat the odds, counting only on his creative genius and will power.

Then suddenly and in the dying paragraphs, the fairy tale turned into a Shakespearean tragedy–woeful and wretched. It was as if the chivalrous knight, upon conquering all the dragons in his path, instead chose to cast himself from atop the castle. No one enjoys such a bad ending to a fairy tale, which perhaps is why the world still finds itself engrossed with one man’s tragedy while glossing over what was supposed to be the real story from the World Cup: Italy being crowned soccer’s world champions for a fourth time.