"To compose the score for this sound and visual event, part of the text comes from the transcribed, adapted, rewritten comments of Thierry Gilardi, Jean-Michel Larqué, Arsène Wenger and David Aiello during the broadcast of the World Cup final football 2006 live on the French television channel TF1. A short passage comes from the comments of Fabio Caressa and Beppe Bergomi during the broadcast of this final at the same time on the Italian channel Sky Sports 1. Excerpts from the poem by Stéphane Mallarmé Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard chance were used . Quotations are italicized in the text.

We will never really know if Mallarmé played football. On the other hand, we know that he was an English teacher."

From the last page and back cover of the book

A "foot-oratorio" replaying the 2006 World Cup final match between France and Italy.

Nicolas Richard composes a score of sound poetry based on Zinedine Zidane's header. This now-famous gesture, which marked the end of the footballer's career, is multiplied by live accounts and deferred words. The author collects and combines a wide range of voices, from sports commentators to Hegel, Guy-Ernest Debord and Shakira. The page, transformed into a playground, is then made up of a variety of writings that Nicolas Richard brings together and puts into dialogue across the centuries.

Also designed to be spoken, the text is a playful space to discover aloud.

"Un Coup de Tête never
even given in these eternal circumstances
on the other side of the field
even glimpsed
with a slight delay
like the ghost of a gesture
like a simple insinuation
on a control screen
precipitated mystery
will abolish
Chance
memorable crisis
little virile reason
Nothing will have taken place but the place
In those vague reaches in which all reality dissolves
every thought gives a jolt
We come back
Mallarmé's position on the field
And his free kicks? A floating effect?
Dice passes to Hegel or a head butt?
We'll never really know if Mallarmé
played soccer
But we do know that he was an English teacher.

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