The headbutter, Zinedine Zidane (AFP archive).
We all remember Zinedine Zidane headbutting Marco Materazzi during the 2006 World Cup. Italy and France were facing off on July 9th, 2006, in Germany. France lost, and it was all Zidane’s fault…or so we were told.
Italy Won The 2006 World Cup?
They sure did. 5-3 in the penalty shoot-out final. For casual soccer fans, let me break down what that means.
The game is 90 minutes long (with an emphasis on long, at times). There is usually additional time added that is meant to compensate for time used for substitutions, fake injuries, and other stalling techniques during the game.
In games like the 2006 World Cup, extra periods are added for overtime. In 2006, specifically, the teams were still tying at 1-1.
If none of that works (like in 2006), the penalty shoot-out happens. Each team (usually) gets five kicks, with a different player making each kick. That’s where we found ourselves at the end of the cup.
What’s Zidane Got To Do With It?
The popular narrative for many years was that Zinedine was to blame for France’s loss. For many years, all fans knew was that Zidane headbutted Italy’s Materazzi with a loss of temper. I am generally skeptical that any one player can make or break a game, especially with just one play. But the media loves an easy-to-process story.
You can’t just go headbutting people, and Zinedine got the red card. Fans felt that he had let them down as he got booted from the field, and he was a ball baddie and could have made a point and won the game for Italy. A person could also argue that an incident like that could create a negative shift of momentum that’s hard to come back from.
If Zidane had kept his head straight and not been buried in another man’s midsection, France could have won. That’s a tough pill to swallow. Particularly from such an esteemed, well-behaved player like Zinedine. He had also just announced his retirement, which would begin right after the World Cup was over, just before it started. That’s not a great way to announce news like that.
The Rest Of The 2006 World Cup Story
Not everyone was on the same page with what set off Zinedine. The French player offered Materazzi his jersey, and Marco said he would prefer his sister. Only in Europe will people trash-talk in the most polite way possible. A little uncouth? Maybe. Lewd? Only if you’re Pope Francis.
More notable is likely the timing of the event. Not every fan was aware that the headbutting went down in the final 10 minutes of the extra time of the game. If you watch much soccer, you know that little happens in 10 minutes of any game (to me). And, considering each side only made a single point that far into the game, they were almost surely going to the penalty shootout with or without Zinedine’s cranky cranium contact.
Not that Zidane’s behavior is justified. It just helps to be realistic about the impact of his temper-related transgressions. There are so many beautiful things about Zinedine’s career, and it’s important to not have misinformation about this one incident taint the soccer legend’s legacy.
Want to take a bite out of another article? My article on Luis Suarez’s here is just the thing.
