I remember the time when Cantona rebelled against the insults directed at him by a cretin. There is something essential about rebellion, about acknowledging that there are boundaries to what can be said. I am aware that this contradicts what I believe about scandal and offence. Yet even so, I shall continue to esteem Zidane as a man, un vrai homme.

“What is a rebel? A man who says no: but whose refusal does not imply a renunciation. He is also a man who says yes as soon as he begins to think for himself. A slave who has taken orders all his life, suddenly decides that he cannot obey some new command. What does he mean by saying ‘no’?….
“In every rebellion, the man concerned experiences not only a feeling of revulsion at the infringement of his rights but also a complete and spontaneous loyalty to certain aspects of himself. Thus he implicitly brings into play a standard of values so far from being false that he is willing to preserve them at all costs…
“Resentment is always resentment against oneself. The rebel, on the other hand, from his very first step, refuses to allow anyone to touch what he is. He is fighting for the integrity of one part of his being.
“Rebellion is the common ground on which every man bases his first values. I rebel – therefore we exist.”

From ‘The Rebel’, written by another Algerian-French footballer, Albert Camus.