It was a day Marco Materazzi will never forget, the FIFA World Cup final in 2006, not only did Italy win their fourth FIFA World Cup, but he also scored a goal to tie the match that Italy would eventually win on penalty kicks.
More famous than his goal was a play deep in extra time when the now 49-year-old received a headbutt by French superstar Zinedine Zidane. The play has been replayed a thousand times and even parodied on shows like Family Guy.
The final was played on July 9th 2006 in the Olympiastadion in Berlin. Zidane scored the opening goal with a penalty kick in the seventh minute. Materazzi would tie the match in the 19th minute, later on a goal by Fabio Grosso in the shootout would give Italy their title.Here is what the Italian World Cup hero had to say about that fateful play.
Marco Materazzi on Zinedine Zidane headbutt
Laughing about it on Italian Football TV podcast Materazzi recalls the incident, “Zidane offered me his jersey, I said no I prefer his sister” and broke into laughter as the reason for the headbutt.
The reason for Materazzi using the insult to his advantage came from the trash talking that he saw in the NBA. “You know the NBA? Trash talking, my trash talking was minimal (compared to the NBA).”