Strange Attraction

For your information, I'm really pulling for a French win on Sunday. I really want Zidane to have his fairy-tale ending. I think he deserves it.

I find myself strangely drawn to the man. He seems like a genuinely normal guy, aside from the fact that he's filthy stinking rich. He has a normal wife and four normal kids. He looks great in clothes, like he could be a model. He looks even greater now that he's shaved his head, which now brings out his rough and tumble facial features. "Rough and tumble" looking guys were never my type, but there's something different about Zizou. It just suits him.

But I also get the feeling that behind the tough exterior, that he's a softy inside. Photos of him with his kids are so adorable. And then there are some cultural parallels that I feel like I share with him.

He's a child of Algerian immigrants, raised in Marseilles. The Algerian national team didn't want him because "he wasn't fast enough". So he chose to play for France. Yet the French president (underscore, emphasize, bold) said that more and more, he can't recognize a French face on the team. (The top players in the team are of non-French heritage) Talk about not being wanted!

Anyway, sometimes I feel like that just walking the streets in my own small town neighborhood. Being a minority sucks sometimes, like you're constantly being singled out as different. Yet I know that if I went to Vietnam, I would instantly be recognized as non-vietnamese. Sometimes I feel like I don't belong anywhere and anywhere I go, they won't see me as being one of them.

So the sense of belonging and doing something to show everyone that you belong somewhere is something I feel like Zidane is out there proving, with quite remarkable results. Being touted as possibly the best in the world of all time is no small feat. If only I could be as successful.

Anyway, Go France! Go Zizou!