Towards the end of the soccer World Cup Final played on 9 July 2006, Zidane head-butted the Italian player Materazzi, and was sent off. It caused a media furore. Despite criticism that his actions had contributed directly to France’s defeat, Zidane was immediately forgiven by the media’s on-going coverage. Newspapers produced a rhetoric of extenuating circumstances. Key elements of this absolution were: Zidane’s humanity, social origins, and sporting genius. Analysis of the coverage by the written press reveals how worship of sporting icons is symbolic of contemporary uses of the world of sport as a “refuge” from wider problems. In a period when society and politics are in existential crisis, sport and his idols constitute one of the few remaining spaces which allow the expression of civic enthusiasm civic values, the social sharing of emotion, and the worship of secular iconic figures.