PHOTO: There's a giant Zinedine Zidane head-butting statue in Paris

You wouldn't think a Paris art museum would be quick to create a gigantic ode to the most infamous moment in French soccer history. But you'd think wrong:

Yes, that's an enormous statue immortalizing Zinedine Zidane's head-butt of Italy's Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final, a head-butt that earned Zidane a red card and played a major role in France's eventual defeat on penalty kicks. Standing at more than five meters high (16 feet), the bronze statue -- simply titled "Headbutt" -- now stands outside Paris' Centre Pompidou art museum.

The piece is part of the museum's retrospective on Algerian artist and sculptor Adel Abdessemed. So, why would Abdessemed reconstruct the worst moment in the career of a soccer player whom many Algerians idolize? (Zidane's parents immigrated to France from Algeria.)

"This statue goes against the tradition of making statues in honor of certain victories," said the Abdessemed exhibit organizer. "It is an ode to defeat."

That works for us -- and we now fervently await the Met's unveiling of its giant bronze sculpture of the two replacement refs making different signals at the conclusion of Packers-Seahawks.

HT: @SI_Vault