A 5-meter (16.4 feet) high version of Algerian artist Adel Abdessemed's bronze statue of Zinedine Zidane headbutting Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final has been erected outside Paris' Centre Pompidou, one of the world's foremost modern art museums. A smaller version of the statue had previously been on exhibition in a New York gallery, but now it is massive and out in the open for all to admire.

What would a modern art museum in the country that ultimately lost the World Cup final to Italy after Zidane was sent off for trying to ram his head through Materazzi's chest want with such a statue? From ESPN:

"This statue goes against the tradition of making statues in honour of certain victories. It is an ode to defeat," exhibition organizer Alain Michaud told Agence France Presse.

How very French. And unusually human.

And here's the incident that inspired it...

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