Faruk Pasic
The Aesthetics of Zidane�s Ultimate Goal
Unfortunately, if I were to mention the name Zinedine Zidane to an average person on the street today, I would probably receive a comment about his infamous head butt during this years FIFA World Cup. Many people seem to forget that the enormous outrage over Zidanes foul play originated to a large degree from the shock about the fact that such an established and experienced player, the undisputed icon of European world-class soccer of the last decade (next to perhaps David Beckham), would resort to such a violent attack. My point is that besides being a head-butting butthead, Zidane was also responsible for some of the greatest moments in soccer history and one of the most beautiful goals scored in the last ten years.
Since I have now used the word beauty in the last
sentence, I should discuss what it is about athletic activities that can be
considered beautiful. Despite
Gumbrechts valid claim that there was a discontinuity in the world of sports
between the end of the classic period and the late 18th century, the
most striking feature of the aesthetics of sports in Western culture today is
probably that our concept of what an athletic human body should look like is
still very much comparable to the Greek ideal of an athlete, as the statue of a
Greek discus thrower suggests. This is
worth noting because tastes have changed drastically in other forms of
aesthetic experiences over the same period of time. For example, with the invention of
photography, it became less important for artists to be able to paint realistic
landscapes because there was a more effective method of capturing the same
landscape more accurately. Thus,
painting moved to ever more abstract forms in the 20th century. When it comes to ideas about athletic beauty,
however, little seems to have changed.
Much of this has probably to do with the discussion about skill that
came up in the last meeting. One simply
values an object or an activity much more if one can recognize how much work
and effort was actually needed in its production. The perceived value of this object or work
only increases if, in addition, its production involved a set of skills that
only few of us possess, or if it involved skills which can only be obtained
through years of practice. This is true
today as much as it was in ancient
That said, I can finally talk about Zinedine Zidane and the ultimate goal, which he scored against Bayer Leverkusen in the 2002 UEFA Champions League final. The scoring of this goal was a result of speed, precision, timing, and also undoubtedly a little bit of luck. The beauty lies in the execution of the shot. If one examines the situation closely, one will notice that the entire scene happened in roughly five seconds (from Roberto Carlos receiving the pass on the left wing to the moment when the ball lands in the net). In order for this action to work smoothly in such a short amount of time, the players must possess blind precision and good timing, namely knowing where and how to play the ball and where exactly to stand without even having to look. Before lobbing the ball into the penalty box, Roberto Carlos never even looks up. The ball sails in a large arc to Zidane, who is waiting at the exactly correct position on the other side of the pass. Similarly to Roberto Carlos, Zidanes eyes are only on the ball. His glance only shifts towards the goal after the ball has already left his foot. Such ability to estimate the balls path is rare even among the elite class of soccer players and simply leaves the spectator speechless.
It would be wrong, however, to ascribe the aesthetic value of the ultimate goal only to the players skills. While the skills are the reason why one would be impressed with the scene, there is a certain aspect to the movement of the ball and the motion of the player himself that makes the scored goal a truly beautiful sight. Observing the path of the ball after it is released from Zidanes foot, one will notice the curved path that it takes to reach the net. The path of the ball bends outward, curving around the powerless goalkeeper, and lands in the net behind him. There is something inherently beautiful about the curved shape of the path that the ball takes. It could be the simple precision of the geometric shape, which one usually does not encounter as such in nature, which evokes a feeling of admiration and praise in the viewer. It could also be the smooth and fluid movement of the ball that appeals to ones senses, especially because the fluid motion is combined with power and speed.
One can observe an aesthetic of motion in Zidanes movements as well. As the pass is flying towards him from the left wing, Zidane faces almost the exact opposite direction of the goal as he winds up his foot for the shot. He then releases his foot and performs a 270-degree turn, hitting the ball at the exactly correct moment. In this turn Zidane combines power, speed, precision, and timing. It is a similar motion to that which an ice skater would perform before a jump. Zidane takes the disorientation and chaos out of the spin and exerts control over it without losing any of the spin-kicks power. The fluidity of the spin remains while its inherent unpredictability has been eliminated. This control of the uncontrollable represents the beauty of the ultimate goal. It is that to which Gumbrecht refers as the epiphany of the play.
Sources:
Greek Disc Thrower: http://lib.lbcc.edu/images/greece/discthrower-greek-450bc.jpg