Zidane voted best of the semi-finals

 
Zidane’s creative play and match-winning spot-kick in the 33rd minute earned him top votes from seven out of the website’s nine language channels. The three-time FIFA World Player of the Year was most popular among Korean readers, who gave him 70 per cent of their votes, and Chinese readers, from whom he received 53 per cent of the votes.

Interestingly, the two exceptions to the 'Zizou' love-fest were the French and Italian versions of the site. French fans seemed to have greater appreciation for the contributions of centre-back Lillian Thuram, who took 33 per cent of the Gallic votes as compared to Zidane’s 30 per cent.

Italian fans, meanwhile, rated the France No.10 fifth with just four per cent of the votes. Users of the Italian-language version of the site instead heaped their admiration on Grosso, who received 65 per cent of the Italian-language votes for his goal against Germany in the 119th minute. The man who provided the assist for his goal, Pirlo, ranked second with Italian voters with 18 per cent