Beyond the skills and the tension of the game is the dramatic narrative of sport; the veiled reflection of real human struggles. Sport is not just compelling because of the flick passes, the sidesteps, the soft-shoe shuffles, an elegant cover-drive, or a deceptive Portuguese dive; it compels because of the context. Muhammad Ali’s comeback victories in the 1970s are significant not just because they assured Ali’s claim to greatness, but because he was no longer Cassius, and his history was more than just that of a boxer. Lance Armstong’s Tour victories are made all the more impressive – unbelievable – because they came after cancer, not just because he won more Tours than Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault and Indurain before him.

Sometimes the greatness is seen in juxtaposition to a fall from grace that accompanied declining talents and fading years. Best, Gascoigne, Maradonna – anger at the boredom that came between matches, fury at the emasculation of being unable to play – and when, once robbed of that thing that defined them as men, the beginning of a tragic slide.

The raging against the dying of the light is a compelling context for sporting drama. Zidane, once retired from international football, rescinded to drag France to the World Cup Finals. He is thirty-four and retired from club football. In 1998 he scored two goals as France beat Brazil in the final. In 2000 he had shown total mastery as France cruised to the European Championship. Injury had ravaged his form in the 2002 World Cup, and in recent years among the galacticos of Real Madrid, his star had waned in good company. But against Brazil in the quarter finals, Zidane of old returned. Each game was literally his last. He played ever game with a strapped leg. But the turns, feints, passes, step-overs; the controlling influence - was all there. From wherever he found it, he rediscovered his talent (had ever it gone away) and dominated again. More than Ronaldinho, the two Ronaldos, David Beckham or Wayne Rooney, this World Cup, the latter stages especially, were about Zinedine Zidane and his personal struggle to overcome declining form, an ageing team, and an inexperienced coach, to win again.

Not all fairytales end happily, however, and not every triumphant return is for good. In the end France lost on penalties; by that time Zidane had already departed, sent off for butting Marco Materazzi – a man who will forever be associated for provoking Zizou to violence (but for what, we will ask). Was this a sad end to Zidane’s career? Or a fall from grace? Not at all. Winning is not everything. Who wants perfection? Sportsmen and women at the highest level transcend the game, they relate us – and the game itself - directly to broader dramatic narrative of sport and life, and if they didn’t sometimes lose, then we’d cease interest in the idea that sometimes against all the odds there can be victory. Perhaps also, we should simply reflect that last night, for Zinedine Zidane, there was something more important than playing the last ten minutes of a game fated to be decided by chance. And leave it at that.