Qatar: the statue of Zidane's "headbutt" will be reinstalled in a museum

Europe 1 with AFP 6:36 p.m., June 06, 2022

The statue immortalizing Zinedine Zidane's "headbutt" on Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final, removed from the Doha Corniche in 2013, will be reinstalled in the new Sports Museum, an official announced on Monday.

The more than five-meter-tall, multi-ton bronze statue of the "butt of the head", the work of French artist Adel Abdessemed, had been purchased by the Qatar Museums Authority as part of preparations for the Football World Cup organized from November 21 to December 18.

Withdrawn after a campaign denouncing idolatry

It had been removed less than a month after its installation by the sea in the center of Doha, following a campaign denouncing idolatry prohibited by Islam.

“It felt like it was in the wrong place and it is going to be relocated. We are planning to do it at the 3-2-1 Museum” which opened in late March, said the president of Qatar Museums, Sheikha Al-Mayassa Al-Thani, without giving a precise date.

"With Zinédine Zidane's sculpture, we will talk about stress in athletes during major tournaments and the importance of talking about mental health issues," said Sheikha Al-Mayassa, during a press conference.

"Art, like anything else, is a matter of taste," she said, adding that "societies evolve."

"People, she added, can start by criticizing something before understanding it and getting used to it."

14 giant bronze sculptures by British artist Damien Hirst representing the stages of a fetus' growth from fertilization to birth had to remain covered outside a hospital under construction in Qatar between 2013 and 2018. The cultural calendar of the emirate is planning, among other things, an exhibition devoted to football at the Sports Museum from October.

The renovated Museum of Islamic Arts is also due to reopen in October.