Fourteen-year-old Willie Udofia Jr. has one word to describe French World Cup captain Zinedine Zidane’s behavior during the tournament’s final match: “Stupid.”

“It doesn’t matter if somebody says something to you, you should walk away, show them by scoring a goal and doing your best.” said Willie, who lives in Atlanta.

Soccer associations, coaches and parents this week are hoping other kids feel the same way about Zidane’s head butt to Marco Materazzi in the game’s final minutes. The outburst earned Zidane – a respected three-time FIFA Player of the Year who was even voted best player of this year’s tournament – an ejection. Now some coaches plan to use the incident to demonstrate to young athletes that bad sportsmanship has consequences.

“All sports are about competing hard, competing fairly and being a good sport,” said John Burrill, executive director of the Massachusetts Youth Soccer Association, who called the incident an “absolute total disgrace.” “Whether you win or lose, you are expected to act responsibly. When you don’t there’s penalties involved. In Zidane’s case he was thrown out of the match. This certainly tarnishes whatever image he had.”

But in instances like this, kids can ignore consequences, said Brian Shulman, founder and CEO of Learning Through Sports, which develops educational software to teach sportsmanship to kids in grades K-12. He said research shows that kids learn by observing, which means seeing the incident might encourage them to try head butting in their next soccer game.

“I’m watching the greatest soccer player of the world. When I get frustrated, that’s what I should to do,” said Shulman, imagining the thoughts of a youthful player. “Unfortunately, ESPN is going to show this scene over and over again. Even if they talk about how bad it is, all that boy or girl sees is that constant behavior. Kids don’t really listen as much as they observe.”

Soccer has seen fast growth in the United States during the past few decades, with more than 3 million children and youth age 5 to 19 now registered to play in leagues that are members of the national umbrella organization United States Youth Soccer.

Bob Singer, president of the North Carolina Youth Soccer Association, said his organization spends plenty of time teaching kids and encouraging parents to reinforce the message that soccer is about character and self-discipline, while understanding that there’s no such thing as perfection. Some people are calling what Zidane did a tragic mistake.

“We teach our kids that type of conduct is wrong,” said Singer. “Having said that, each of us involved in sports is a human being and we don’t expect perfection whether it be a 5-year-old youth player or a 34-year-old professional player. But there are consequences to misconduct.”