Former France footballer Zinedine Zidane
produced one of the most iconic moments in World Cup history when he headbutted
Italy’s Marco Materazzi in the final of the 2006 edition. Hosted by Germany,
Zidane was the star of the world cup, assisting the winner against Brazil in the
quarters before scoring from the spot against Portugal in the semis to lead
France into the final.

In a blockbuster final in Berlin, ‘Les
Bleus’ were favourites to defeat Italy and lift their second title. However, playing
in his last professional match before retiring, Zidane’s career ended on a
bitter note as he was sent off for headbutting Marco Materazzi.  

Watch the incident here:

Zidane opened the scoring with a sumptous chipped penalty after just six minutes before Italy equalised as Andrea Pirlo’s corner was headed in by Materazzi.

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The game finished level at full time and the red mist descended on Zidane with just 10 minutes left in extra time as he buried his head in Materazzi’s chest after an exchange of words. 

It was only last year that Materazzi opened up about the incident. “Zidane’s headbutt? I wasn’t expecting it in that moment. I was lucky enough that the whole episode took me by suprise 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 was quoted as saying by AS.

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The two had a number of other altecations, challenges and exchanges throughout the match and after a 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 former Inter Milan defender said. 

Speaking about the incident in 2017, Zidane said, “I’m not proud of what I did. One of the first things I did was to apologise to all of the young players in front of everyone.”

Italy went on to defeat France 5-3 in penalties and lift their fourth World Cup title.