French soccer star Zinedine Zidane, who was thrown out of the World Cup's championship game in overtime for head butting an Italian opponent, returned to France Monday.
You might expect that he'd be greeted with boos, or condemned for contributing to his country's heartbreaking penalty-kick defeat. Not quite. Instead, Zidane received an invitation to join President Jacques Chirac for lunch at the Elysee Palace.
Chirac expressed the "admiration and affection of the whole nation" for Zidane, calling him "a man of the heart, of commitment, of conviction, and that's why France admires and loves you."