World Cup 2006: France Beaten by Italy After Zinedine Zidane Violently Headbutts Italian Player Marco Materazzi

I can't say I'm a big football fan, but even to a female who has little interest in "the beautiful game" the big matches between national teams in the later stages of the World Cup can be pretty riveting. And the final itself is usually worth watching. Living in France, the world cup final of 2006 was bound to be interesting. Italy against France? Especially with the excellent player French Zinedine Zidane? It had to be exciting.

I had a Scottish friend staying with me with her two little girls, 6 and 11. The girls' father is half-Italian and though their mum and dad are divorced both girls strongly identify themselves as part-Italian too.

We wanted to see an outdoor screening somewhere but all the outdoor venues were packed to bursting by the time we went out. So we drove to Fontaine de Vaucluse, a pretty village nearby where the Sorgue river flows out from an underground cavern and tall leafy plane trees throw shade on the little square with its cafés, bars, and obligatory war memorial.

The mairie - townhall - had opened a large ground floor hall and erected a huge screen to broadcast the match. The doors were open on both sides and people were milling in and out excitedly. The village may be tiny but everyone was there - portly old chaps with long moustaches, elderly women chatting amongst themselves, their handsome young sons and elegant daughters, kids running about excitedly, young mums and dads holding tiny babies. It was a lovely Provencal summer evening - cigales chanting loudly in the plane trees, the air scented with wild rosemary, the sound of the Sorgue cascading across the rocks.

As the match began, a stout Frenchman with a big grin leant down to my friend's little girls and, hearing them speak English, said in French "Aha, les filles - you are going to support France, no?" Hannah, the 6-year-old, looked scandalized and said loudly: "No! My daddy's Italian and I'm supporting Italy." Still beaming - the French famously love kids - the guy asked me to translate. So in front of a crowd of excited French football fans, about to watch the world cup final, I hesitatingly explained that, er, the girls were supporting Italy. The guy roared with laughter though and said she had some nerve to support Italy in a crowd of French football fans. Luckily he explained with good humour to everyone around us that the girls were half-Italian and no-one objected each time an Italian player made a good pass and Hannah, alone in the hall, cheered and waved her little arms about wildly.

The match was of course won by Italy entirely through the revered Zidane's fault. At the time, Zidane - whom the French nickname Zizou - was playing his last match before retiring. The idea was clearly to go out on a high note, ending his stellar professional career with a French world cup win. Which would have been the perfect end to a pretty perfect career. Zidane was not just a great footballer but also a great sport and a bit of a gentleman. He'd always behaved well and wasn't flashy. In fact, unlike the thoroughly vulgar English footballers, he drove an ordinary old car and didn't define himself by brash spending, getting drunk and behaving like a yob. He was seen as a good person as well as a genuinely talented footballer.

In this world cup final he started very well. Taking a penalty early on, he effortlessly booted the ball into the goal to put France ahead. The fans around us went wild and there was singing and cheering for "Les Bleus". Confidence remained high even when Italian player Marco Materazzi equalised. The confidence in Zidane was so strong that the French fans seemed to feel victory was still entirely possible.

All the more terrible then as the crowd in that hall, and all over France, and all round the world, gawped in astonishment when Zidane - with the score at one-one and just ten minutes left of extra time - appeared to flip....and viciously head-butted Materazzi.

The French fans in that hall seemed absolutely stunned. They were clearly immediately disgusted by the violence and then horrified as Zizou was sent off the pitch by the referee. (The crowd in the hall were luckily so shell-shocked that no-one took any notice of little Hannah jumping up and down saying Italy would now win. "Hannah" I whispered, "keep the volume down. Now is not the time..." )

But it was indeed suddenly inevitable that the disastrous outburst meant France would lose. Zidane's team-mates were visibly shocked and it was clear that morale plummeted immediately. In addition of course, the French team was now a man down - their captain and most skilful player had in effect deserted them at the most critical stage of a world cup final.

The French team still fought valiantly and brought the match to a penalty shootout but it was clear they were disorientated and beaten - not by the Italian team but by their own captain's inexplicable professional lapse.

Fabio Grosso scored the winning penalty for Italy just after France's David Trezeguet missed the shot he took.

The British press reported after the match that Materazzi had provoked Zidane on the pitch. Born in Marseille in France, Zizou is of Algerian origin and describes himself as a non-practising muslim. It was reported that Materazzi has made some comment to the effect that Zizou was an islamic terrorist or something along those lines. But Materazzi sued the papers involved and they retracted their stories. It was later reported that the Italian player had, during the match, insulted Zidane's mother and sister. He was reported to have said Zidane's sister - undoubtedly entirely unknown to the Italian - was "a whore".

A shame for Zidane and a shame for French football and French football fans that their all-time footballing hero should have responded to Materazzi's underhand tactic with violence. Italian insults routinely centre around the supposed sexual activities of another guy's mother or sister and normally one would imagine Zidane just shaking his head at such infantile behaviour.

The incident made for a world cup final that was unforgettable and full of tension. Sadly, it did no credit to the Italian player and ended Zidane's career on a bizarre and atypically low note.

Makes you wonder what the story of the 2010 final will be?....

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2006/4991652.stm