“France is on fire again,” writes The Australian, “but this time it is not angry youths rioting and torching cars in protest against an out-of-touch political elite.” No, this time, it’s Zinedine Zidane, the most gifted player the world has seen since Argentina’s Diego Maradona, who’s lifted the nation out of social, economic and spiritual despair. If France manages to beat Italy in the World Cup final on Sunday night, who knows what kind of unifying effect the victory will have on a nation that has become all too divided among racial and political lines. In 1998, “Zizou,” and a team representing a “harmonious, multi-racial France” downed Brazil 3-0 in the final to realize France’s dream, only to watch it evaporate after three games and no goals in Korea four years later. Since then, the French national team has been referred to as the “Old Men of Old Europe,” who were given next to no chance of winning this tournament. But something happened this year, as Zidane, sensing the end, reached deep within his bag of tricks to produce a series of special performances, while “old” teammates like Patrick Vieira, long criticized as being past his best, and the sturdy Lilian Thuram responded in kind to lead Les Bleus past some of the toughest opposition this World Cup had to offer and into the final on Sunday. “In a country for too long bereft of national heroes, Zidane is once again the focus of dormant French patriotism,” The Australian says. Once again, his name is a common cry on the streets of France and its newspapers are filled once more with hymns of praise for the son of Algerian immigrants who grew up playin gin the streets of Marseilles. He is “a magician, a genius, a star admired on every continent,” Le Parisien said this week. Long live the great one, and may Sunday be the fitting last chapter in “The Fabulous Destiny of Zinedine Zidane.”