On 27 Apr 06 we wrote in commemoration of Zinédine Zidane’s pending retirement from club and international soccer. When he left the pitch for the last time at Real Madrid’s home ground, the Santiago Bernabéu, “he looked fragile, almost birdlike.”
Soccer offers an ambiguous middle ground between words and blows. (Tim Parks, "Soccer: A Matter of Love and Hate," New York Review of Books, 18 Jul 02)