Algerian newspapers crowned Zinedine Zidane "King of France" yesterday after his two goals. "Zidane was dazzling," said daily El Watan, joining in the columns of praise in the press of the former French colony for the player whose parents came from the Kabylie region, 200 kms east of Algiers. "Zidane floored Brazil," ran Authentique newspaper above a frontpage picture of the French playmaker. Zidane, whose first name Zinedine means `beauty of the faith' in Arabic, headed two of the goals, but Demain L'Algerie daily gave him almost sole credit for the French victory. Its headline was simply: "Zidane 3 - Brazil 0".
The major US newspapers ran front page stories of France's win, defying the notion that the United States is apathetic to football. The Sunday game, seen by an estimated two billion viewers around the world, was aired live on ABC television, as well as on the Spanish-language network Univision and cable sports channel ESPN.
In Britain the final finished in second place in the television viewing league by pulling more than 22 million viewers. Despite the lack of a home team, BBC1 and ITV viewers tuned in to the match in greater numbers than for England's clashes with Romania and Colombia. The combined total was only two million behind the number of viewers of French TV who watched their own team play. BBC1 maintained its tradition of pulling in the largest share of viewers when both the leading channels screen the match simultaneously. It attracted an average of 15.7 million viewers with ITV drawing 6.6 million.
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