The final match of Zinedine Zidane’s career still stands as one of the biggest emotional rollercoasters in the history of the game.
The France captain proudly led his side out to face Italy in the 2006 World Cup final at the Olympiastadion in Berlin for his last contest as a professional.
As significant as that moment must have been for him, the evening got even better for Zidane when he put his country 1-0 ahead with a brilliantly executed Panenka penalty after just seven minutes.
Simply having the confidence to execute such a technique in a World Cup final tells you just how much of a cool customer Zidane was under normal circumstances.
Marco Materazzi equalised for the Azzurri prior to half-time and the sides remained level after 90 minutes.
It was during the second period of extra-time that Zidane infamously clashed with his fellow goalscorer. The French skipper could be seen in animated conversation with Materazzi, before launching himself forward and headbutting the Italian in the chest.
Watch: Zidane’s last match as a professional ends in disgrace
On this day in 2️⃣0️⃣0️⃣6️⃣, the headbutt heard around the world happened 😲
Zinedine Zidane was sent off for headbutting Marco Materazzi in the World Cup Final. He never played again. pic.twitter.com/8Wg813L4Z5
— Last Word On Football (@LastWordFC) July 9, 2022
After referee Horacio Elizondo consulted with his assistants, there was only ever really one possible outcome.
Zidane was given his marching orders, ending his time as a professional footballer on a sour – and completely uncharacteristic – note.
To add salt to Zidane’s wounds, France went out to lose the final on penalties.
The lasting image from the final, though, wouldn’t be the Italians raising the trophy in triumph. Instead, it was the sight of Zidane trudging from the field in disgrace that graced back pages around the world.
In the aftermath of the final, everyone wanted to know what had prompted Zidane to lose his head so badly. For years, rumours persisted that Materazzi has insulted the Frenchman’s mother, sparking the unsavoury scenes between the pair.
However, Materazzi set the record straight in 2017.
“My mother died when I was 15, I would never have insulted his,” Materazzi insisted. “I spoke about his sister.”
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It was a further three years until the Italian defender went into detail on the incident, breaking it down in full during an Instagram Live in 2020.
“Zidane’s headbutt? I wasn’t expecting it in that moment. I was lucky enough that the whole episode took me by surprise because if I had expected something like that to happen and had been ready for it, I’m sure both of us would have ended up being sent off,” he revealed, per Football Italia.
“There had been a bit of contact between us in the area. He had scored France’s goal in the first half and our coach (Marcello Lippi) told me to mark him. After that first brush between us, I apologised but he reacted badly.
(Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)
“The late tackles, altercations and exchanges continued until 110 minutes, when things reached a head.
“After the third clash, I frowned and he retorted: ‘I’ll give you my shirt later’. I replied that I’d rather have his sister than his shirt.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
Not the ending that anyone would have planned for Zidane after such a legendary career.
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