Qatar is aiming to put a controversial statue of Zinedine Zidane’s notorious 2006 World Cup final headbutt on display for this year’s tournament, authorities said Monday.
The five metre (16 feet) high bronze showing the French legend in confrontation with Italian defender Marco Materazzi was put up for less than four weeks on the Doha seafront in 2013 when protests that it breached Islamic rules on idolisation led to it being taken down.
The statue will now be at the centre of an exhibit at Doha’s new international sports museum on the impact of high level sport on “mental health and dealing with stress”, said Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the head of Qatar Museums.