Designed by: Adel Abdessemed

Location and Spatial Context: Doha Corniche – It is a huge artwork placed in a big public space like Corniche. Corniche holds most of the sports events and this art piece celebrating the famous moment in the 2006 world cup justified its location.

Typology: Figurative and provocative art piece

Community Role: This bronze sculpture depicts the French footballer Zinédine Zidane’s infamous head-butt on Italy’s Marcro Materazzi during the 2006 World Cup final match. But this spectacular piece unfortunately received a lot of criticism and controversial discussions which led to its removal. According to some residents of Qatar especially among the Qataris, it was considered a symbol of violence and captures a very negative moment of the famous footballer Zidane’s career.

This impressive bronze sculpture is 5m high.

“The statue goes against the tradition of making statues in honour of certain victories. It is an ode to defeat.”