Twenty years on, Materazzi reveals what triggered Zidane's headbutt

Marco Materazzi has given his most detailed account to date of the altercation with Zinedine Zidane during the 2006 World Cup final, just days before the twentieth anniversary of an episode that remains etched in the collective memory of world football.

According to the former Inter Milan defender, it all started with a corner. After being scolded by Gennaro Gattuso for letting Zidane get away on a header saved by Gianluigi Buffon, Materazzi decided to physically press the French number 10 at the next corner. “I lean on Zidane when there’s another cross coming in,” he recounts. The Frenchman’s reaction was swift: “He gets upset and tells me: ‘If you want my shirt, I’ll give it to you after the match.’” Materazzi admits he responded with insults targeting Zidane’s sister, fully owning his words while citing Michael Jordan as a reference for trash-talk.

The headbutt that followed, which earned Zidane a red card in the 110th minute, even surprised Materazzi himself. “The fact that I wasn’t expecting his headbutt was an advantage, because if I’d felt it coming, I would have put my hand up to push him away, and I think the referee would have sent us both off,” he analyzes. He adds that the lack of anticipation paradoxically protected his body: “My body wasn’t rigid, so I didn’t get hurt, because a headbutt that powerful could have caused physical damage.”

Materazzi flatly refuses to shoulder all the blame. “I’m not a saint, but neither is Zidane, given that it wasn’t his first gesture,” he says, recalling the Frenchman’s red card against Saudi Arabia in 1998. He regrets that Zidane didn’t shake his hand after the match, believing such a gesture would have worked in the Frenchman’s favor: “I had more to lose, because I would have been painted as the guilty party, I would have remained the villain and he would have become the hero.”

France lost that final on penalties, deprived of their captain in the closing minutes of extra time. July 9, 2026 will mark twenty years since that outcome.