IT'S hardly controversial to claim that Zinedine Zidane is the greatest player of his generation. His peerless excellence, however, is owed to more than skill alone. Yes, he glides through matches like no other, oblivious to the harum-scarum activity around. But it's something else that has truly marked him out at this World Cup.
FIFA's edict to referees to clamp down on foul play has gone badly wrong. Rather than encourage fair play, it has created a cheats' charter: players have realised that they can turn the pressure on referees to their advantage by recoiling in faux agony after any physical contact, as if picked off by a sniper in corporate hospitality. One by one football's greatest stars have demeaned their sport in this way: Ballack against Argentina, Figo against the Nerherlands, Henry against Spain. The nadir was in the Netherlands-Portugal game, when a naive referee was shamelessly exploited by both sides and set a new World Cup record for both yellow and red cards.
The only superstar player to have bucked the trend has been Zidane. On one typical occasion, when felled by an errant Brazilian tackle, there were no histrionics; Zidane merely got up and tutted in frustration that a promising move had been brought to a halt.
Class is an abused word when it comes to football. Zidane is one player who truly provides it.