Zidane remains best-loved French despite head-butt (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
Zinedine Zidane remains France’s best-loved personality despite his head-butt against Italy’s Marco Materazzi in the soccer World Cup final this year, a survey showed on Saturday.

Year had a little bit of everything (John Haydon) (The Washington Times)
What a year it has been in soccer — the year of the wink, the dive and the head-butt. Outgoing 2006 was the year Germany held the World Cup but saw the inspired Italians spoil the party and win their fourth title.

Camel sacrifice, spray-on condom among 2006 oddities (China Daily)
Berlin - From the Turkish Airline workers who sacrificed a camel at Istanbul airport to celebrate a job well done to the German who invented snug spray-on condoms, the world was full of offbeat news in 2006.