"My act is not forgivable," Zidane said. "But they must also punish the true guilty party, and the guilty party is the one who provokes."

For days, sports fans around the world have been riveted by the question: What could Materazzi have said to set Zidane off in the last few moments of his career? Media from Brazil to Britain hired lip readers to try to figure it out, then came up with different answers.

Materazzi has acknowledged he insulted Zidane, without giving specifics. At nearly the same moment Zidane was on TV, excerpts from an interview that Materazzi gave were posted on an Italian paper's Web site.

"I didn't say anything to him about racism, religion or politics," Materazzi told the Gazzetta dello Sport. "I didn't talk about his mother, either. I lost my mother when I was 15 and even now I still get emotional talking about her."

Zidane "has always been my hero," Materazzi said. "I admire him a lot."

Despite the head-butt, journalists selected Zidane for the Golden Ball award for best player at the World Cup ¡ª though FIFA president Sepp Blatter has suggested Zidane could be stripped of the honor.

FIFA's disciplinary committee opened an inquiry Tuesday into Zidane's behavior. His red card was not unusual: Zidane was sent off 14 times in his career at the club and international level.

Despite his temper, Zidane is better known for his sportsmanship and dancer-like style with the ball. He is a national hero for the French and a symbol of a young, multicultural France. Born to Algerian immigrants, Zidane grew up playing on concrete in an impoverished neighborhood of Marseille.

President Jacques Chirac has had only kind words for Zidane since the match ¡ª reassuring him that France still "admires and loves him." Many in France have already pardoned Zidane. A poll published Tuesday in Le Parisien newspaper showed that 61 percent of the 802 people questioned forgave Zidane.

Former France coach Michel Hidalgo said Zidane was "touching, dignified and human" in the interviews.

"We have made him into a god, we have canonized him, but he's above all a man, and a man is fragile and breakable," he told LCI television. "He isn't Zorro, or the god of soccer."