Soccer World news: The mystery remains and speculation looks set to circulate for some time, writes Matthew Spiro in Paris

It was the moment the whole of France and millions of people around the world had been waiting for, but in many ways last night's live television interview with Zinedine Zidane was as anti-climactic as the World Cup final itself.

Speaking publicly for the first time since his extraordinary sending-off 10 minutes before the end of Sunday's showpiece in Berlin, Zidane cut a calm, sanguine figure as he apologised for headbutting Italy defender Marco Materazzi, before insisting that he did not regret the gesture.

For the first 20 minutes of the 23-minute interview screened on Canal Plus, France's former captain was fed gentle questions about Les Bleus' impressive World Cup campaign. The tension in the studio and in living rooms around the country steadily mounted, and eventually the question that has been on the lips of every football enthusiast over the past three days arrived: "So, Zizou, why did you do it?" presenter Michel Denisot probed.

Most people in France had been hoping a rational explanation might somehow emerge, that Zidane would reveal a provocation so great it might justify his violent reaction. But the 34-year-old's claim that Materazzi had angered him by saying "harsh words that concerned my mother and my sister" fell well short and will have done little to satisfy his still largely adoring public.

"The interview has left us with an empty feeling," said French journalist Joachim Barbier, who covered the World Cup for Libération newspaper.

"If, like Zidane says, Materazzi just shouted the usual insults at him, then why did he react in this astonishing way? He's been playing for 18 years and must have received that kind of provocation every week. We still don't understand and now I don't think we'll ever find out what was really said."

The mystery remains unsolved, and potential explanations look set to circulate for some time. Was Zizou on edge because his mother was sick, or perhaps because he had struggled to sleep the night before because of the noise outside his hotel?

Maybe Materazzi's words simply struck a nerve with a player who has a reputation for losing his temper, as 14 career red cards testify.

What is certain is that Zidane's dismissal, which preceded a painful penalty shoot-out defeat for France against Italy, has left the country reeling. "France has not just experienced one tragedy, it has experienced two," wrote the editor of France Football magazine, Gérard Ernault, as he tried to come to terms with the sad and shameful end to the career of France's greatest player.

Voted by journalists as the player of the tournament - a prize that Fifa president Sepp Blatter has hinted might be taken away - Zidane had looked set to enjoy the perfect swansong to his glittering career. The man who inspired French soccer to its greatest moment - the victory over Brazil in the 1998 World Cup final - was weaving his magic again and seemed set to write his name into the history books alongside Pele and Diego Maradona.

The philosopher Bernard Henri-Levy believes the hero-worshipping of France's premier role model may ultimately have been what pushed him over the edge. He described Zidane's reaction as "the suicide of a demigod", adding: "The only explanation is that within the man there was a moment of weakness, an ultimate revolt against the living parable, the stupid statue, the beautified monument that he had become in the past few months."

Last night Zizou asked for forgiveness and he seems sure to be granted it. A survey carried out by Le Parisien newspaper yesterday revealed 61 per cent of French people had already forgiven him, while Eric Raoult, the vice-president of the French parliament, has urged President Jacques Chirac to promote Zidane from chevalier to officier de la Légion d'honneur tomorrow, Bastille Day.

"It won't change the way he is looked at in the years to come," claimed Barbier. "Maradona scored with his hand in one World Cup and failed a drugs test in another, yet he's still worshipped in Argentina.

"Like Maradona, Zidane is a football genius and an impulsive person. If anything this saga will only add to his legend."