Should Zidane be striped of the Golden Ball award for the 2006 FIFA World Cup

Zinedine Zidane was awarded the Golden Ball for the 2006 World Cup, even though he was sent off in the final for a horror tackle on Materazzi. It was given to him even when France eventually lost.

He played a lackluster group stage, but picked up his performance to a deserved man of the match performance against Spain. Then played an ok game against Brazilian, and scored the penalty against Portugal. Then, before being sent off, he scored a very controversial penalty against Italy.

On the other hand Fabio Cannavaro, not only lead Italy to world cup victory, but prior to the final he defended the Italian net with all his heart, conceding only an own goal against the US in the group stage. Italy only again conceded after the already mentioned dubious penalty. He received the silver ball, missing out to Zidane by less than 50 votes.

The majority of votes were made before half time of the final. If the votes were cast after the final, the logical thing to do, then he most definitely would have won the award. A similar incident happened in 2002 when Oliver Kahn received the award ahead of Ronaldo due to early voting. In the final Ronaldo scored twice, one of which came from a goal-keeping blunder by Kahn. Early voting also gave the golden ball in the U-17 world cup to Anderson of Brazil, before Brazil lost to Mexico 3-0. Giovanni Dos Santos of Mexico received the silver ball, small consolation for having a hand in nearly every one of Mexicos goals throughout the finals.

This injustice should not be tolerated any more. FIFA needs to correct the way of voting for player of the tournament. The Technical Study Group are the ones responsible for awarding the man of the match award for every game, why not have them vote for the best player of the tournament, after the final, when that is basically what they have been doing any way? Or, have the media vote, but only start casting votes when the tournament is actually over. We would not declare the top goal scorer until the tournament is over, so why not the best player?

The case in hand is that Zinedine Zidane should be striped of the Golden Ball award, and it should rightfully be given to Cannavaro. As a defender Cannavaro did not even receive one yellow card throughout the tournament, Zidane was suspended for one match and becomes one of a select group of people to be sent off in the finals. So if you are for striping the title away from Zidane and awarding it to Cannavaro please sign this petition and answer yes. Thank You.