November 12, 2026
Former Italian defender Marco Materazzi reignited the controversy over the “famous headbutt” incident between him and French star Zinedine Zidane in the 2006 World Cup final, revealing that the death of Spanish player Jesus de Miguel, following his collision with a goalkeeper, made him realize the seriousness of what he was exposed to, wondering what would have happened if things had turned fatal.
In an interview conducted with the newspaper “La Gazzetta dello Sport” and reported by the “Goal” network coinciding with the confrontation between Italy and France, Materazzi explained that he thanked God that things did not deteriorate in the 2006 incident. This comes in the wake of the death of Di Miguel, the Spanish club Tenerife striker, on November 3 after he collided with the Andorran goalkeeper during a match in the Spanish second division, an incident into which the authorities opened an investigation into its circumstances.
The Italian defender commented on Zidane’s recent statements in which he stressed that he is not proud of the headbutt, but he does not regret it. Materazzi pointed out that if he had swapped roles, he would have admitted his mistake from the first night, justifying it by being provoked, and would have offered an apology leaving the public free to judge, which would have put an end to the case and made Zidane appear as a “noble man” and that he was the one who was exposed to the provocation.
Materazzi considered that continuing to talk about the incident could have been avoided, justifying his behavior by saying that he was not the first player to grab an opponent to prevent him from scoring, and stressing that if he were a coach, he would have seen a defender intelligently stop an opposing player to prevent him from jumping to shake his hand in appreciation for that. He expressed his belief that Zidane had overcome the burden of the incident, suggesting that the renewed talk about it was due exclusively to the upcoming confrontation between Italy and France.
The Italian defender revealed a secret meeting he had with Zidane at the Melia Hotel in Milan in November 2010, on the eve of the Milan-Real Madrid match. He explained that he was leaving the hotel after bidding farewell to coach Jose Mourinho when he saw Zidane parking his car, so he approached him and shook his hand, expressing his happiness at meeting him away from the public eye, to which the French star replied that the matter had become a thing of the past. Materazzi expressed his regret when Zidane later announced that the match did not happen, and that he thought the Italian was just a fan.
Materazzi concluded by stressing that he does not mind the idea of public reconciliation with Zidane, attributing the difficulty of the French star in retracting his position to the dramatic end that his football career witnessed, and pointing out at the same time that his provocation was not the first of its kind on football fields, just as Zidane’s headbutt was not the first.
