One of the things Zinedine Zidane is most famous for was when he headbutted Marco Materazzi in the 2006 world cup final. To understand Zidane we have to start from the beginning.
The 1998 world cup had returned home to where it was created. The world cup was created by Frenchmen Jules Rimet and Henri Delaunay. Obviously the star-studded French world cup team who were brimming with world class players, were the clear favorites to win the World Cup. They ended up bringing home the title in style in a 3–0 win against a Brazil team who weren’t playing at their best throughout the tournament.
Two years later the same French squad had taken control over the footballing world winning the Euro’s. It was like watching the 1998 world cup on repeat, no one were able to step up to this invincible French team.
Then the downfall began.
The 2002 world cup was coming around and again in the eyes of the French people victory was imminent, oh how wrong they were. Only managing to scrape a singular point and not even being able to score a goal, meant that this once invincible French team had to book their ticket home earlier than expected. 2004 wasn’t as bad as they had manged to top their group but an unconvincing 1–0 loss to Greece in the quarter finals had tipped Zidane off the edge. He retired from international football. It was the end of a legend. End of an era.
The French men’s international football team were in shambles. Black-White-Arab. The national team was hated by the nation, it tore them apart. Poor management, politics, and the departure of key players and the disrespect towards them had turned the public’s opinion on the team. The manager at the time Raymond Domenech in order to save their hopes of qualifying for the world cup he had to beg Zidane to come back to the team. It worked. They booked their place in the 2006 World cup in Germany.
Even then France barely made it out of the group stages, Zidane though was only warming up. Starring in knockout games against the likes of Spain, Brazil, and Portugal. It came down to the final. Had Zidane done it? They had ninety minutes, at max one hundred and twenty minutes. Could he carry them to their second ever world cup?
The pressure weighed down on him like a mountain, the hope and joy of a whole nation rode on his shoulder.
What happened during that match against Italy in the world cup finals went down in the history books. A farewell to a legend. Before the game had even started he had confirmed it was going to be his last. They took their places on the pitch. The whistle blew, game had started. Within 7 minutes Marco Materazzi had conceded a penalty which was coolly converted by the level-headed Zidane, the intense rivalry between the two was building. Materazzi was known for his sledging and ability to get underneath the skins of his opponents and Zidane was known for being ill-disciplined. A match made in heaven.
Within 10 minutes of Zidane’s goal Materazzi had leveled the game. A both eventful in the sense there were a lot of close plays, yet uneventful in the sense nothing game changing occurred match played on. The referee blew the full time whistle, we are going to extra time. Zidane lit up the pitch during extra time, but when he was jogging back up the pitch closely followed by the thorn in his side Marco Materazzi, they exchanged some words and than he snapped.
Zidane turned and headbutted Materazzi in the chest. Materazzi had insulted his mother and sister Zidane being the hot head he is turned and attacked him. The dream was over. Zidane’s career was over. The French team ended up losing the game in penalties gifting Italy the World Cup.
